The acronym LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Since its development in 1960, it has entered into all areas of science and technology. It has found applications in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, surgery, engineering, etc. There are low power lasers, with a power of 0.5 mW, called pencil lasers, which serve as pointers. There are also lasers of different power, suitable for delicate surgery of eye or glands in the stomach. Finally, there are lasers which can cut or weld steel.
Light is emitted from a source in the form of packets of waves. Light coming out from an ordinary source contains a mixture of many wavelengths. There is also no phase relation between the various waves. Therefore, such light, even if it is passed through an aperture, spreads very fast and the beam size increases rapidly with distance. In the case of laser light, the wavelength of each packet is almost the same. Also the average length of the packet of waves is much larger. This means that there is better phase correlation over a longer duration of time. This results in reducing the divergence of a laser beam substantially.
If there are N atoms in a source, each emitting light with intensity I, then the total intensity produced by an ordinary source is proportional to NI, whereas in a laser source, it is proportional to N2I. Considering that N is very large, we see that the light from a laser can be much stronger than that from an ordinary source.
When astronauts of the Apollo missions visited the moon, they placed a mirror on its surface, facing the earth. Then scientists on the earth sent a strong laser beam, which was reflected by the mirror on the moon and received back on the earth. The size of the reflected laser beam and the time taken for the round trip were measured. This allowed a very accurate determination of (a) the extremely small divergence of a laser beam and (b) the distance of the moon from the earth.
