Short for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, a laser is an intense beam of light first developed by Physicist Theodore Maiman on May 16, 1960. The picture is an example of a blue laser looks inside a Blu-ray disc player. Today, there are many different uses for lasers. A few examples of where lasers have applications to computers are shown below.

Lasers inside computer hardware & equipment

  • Barcode readers.
  • CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray, and other disc drives.
  • CD and DVD writers.
  • Laser mouse.
  • Laser printer.
  • Magneto-optical recording.

What uses lasers to save information?

Optical disc drives capable of reading and writing to a disc (e.g., CD-R, CD-RW, DVD recordable drives) use lasers to write information to the disc. Additionally magneto-optical recording devices also use lasers to save information.

Because laser is an acronym should it be written in all uppercase?

The word “laser” has become so common that most people are unaware that it’s an acronym and it is no longer written in all uppercase.

Bluetooth, Computer acronyms, Hardware terms, Infrared

  • CD-ROM help and support.