Spin Control

by Harold Miller, Steven Massey, & Alan Paxton oemagazine, June/July 2005 Leaders in the defense community continue to be interested in understanding the potential of high-power lasers for military applications. The promise of light-speed, precision engagement of soft targets, along with the multitude of other possible applications enabled by alternate wavelengths, powers, and beam formats compels technologists to consider laser-based systems in their planning. Although chemical lasers have been shown to be capable of very high output powers, compact, electrically driven solid-state lasers appear to be the enabling technology for many of the envisioned scenarios. Read more