Kinds of Solid-State Lasers

Out of all the different kinds of lasers out there, there are probably more kinds of solid-state lasers than any of the others. this does not mean that solid-state lasers are the most useful, but it does imply that a lot can be done with this kind of laser. I'm not going to give you a whole lot of information on each kind because there are so many, but I will give you all the names and a very brief application description. As there is much more you can learn about each of these kinds of solid-state lasers, this will at least give you a basic idea of the many different kinds.

• Ruby Lasers- used for tattoo removal, and holography. Was invented in 1960 and was the very first visible laser.
• Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet lasers- used in range finding, laser targeting, surgery, pumping other lasers, and research. It is a very common high-powered laser.
• Erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet lasers- used in dentistry and periodontal scaling.
• Neodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride lasers- mainly used for pulsed pumping other lasers.
• Neodymium-doped yttrium orthovanadate lasers- also used for certain kinds of pulse pumping.
• Neodymium-doped yttrium calcium oxoborate laser diode- can be used to simplify the construction of bright green lasers.
• Neodymium glass lasers- used in very high powered laser systems (inertial confinement fusion).
  
• Titanium sapphire lasers- used for spectroscopy, light detection and ranging, and other research.
  
• Thulium lasers- used for light detection and ranging.
• Ytterbium lasers- used for optical refrigeration, light detection and ranging, processing materials, ultrashort pulse research, and multi-photon microscopy.
  
• Ytterbium-doped glass lasers- used for cutting, welding, marking, fiber optics, and raman laser pumping.
• Holmium lasers- used to remove tissue and kidney stones. Also used in dentistry.
• Cerium-doped lithium strontium aluminum fluoride- used in light detection and ranging, remote atmospheric sensing, and optics research.
• Promethium 147 doped phosphate glass lasers- this laser is radioactive.
• Chromium-doped chrysoberyl lasers- used for laser machining, light detection and ranging, and some dermatology uses.
• Erbium-doped and erbium ytterbium co-doped glass lasers- used mainly for optical amplification for telecommunications.
• Trivalent uranium doped calcium fluoride lasers- not currently in use.
• Divalent samarium doped calcium fluoride lasers- also not currently used.
• F-center lasers- used in spectroscopy.
  

Although I might have missed a couple kinds of solid-state lasers in the list above, it still gives you a pretty good idea of the many different kinds of lasers out there and what they are being used for.