From 1960 when laser was invented to the mid of 1970s, laser industry had not become sweeping industry. At this stage, people mainly research basic theory of laser and various laser pieces to improve their performance especially for the application in military. Take America as an example, laser application reaches 86.7% in the military field.
At that time, the scale of laser industry is very small which value is just 0.0617 billion US dollars. In late 1970S, the performance of various laser pipes have been greatly improved. Specially, the life, mode, stability of YAG laser pipe, CO2 laser pipe, He-Ne laser pipe, semiconductor laser pipe have been improved which make it become true that laser can be widely used in industrial field, corresponding field, information-saving field, and medical field. In 1985, the sales value of laser pipes all over the world reached to 0.4418 billion US dollars. From that time, laser industry has been developing quickly.
In 1998, the sales value of laser pipes reaches 3.88 billion US dollars which is 19% higher than in 1997 in which semiconductor laser pipe is 2.15 billion US dollars or 55.8%; other types are 1.73 US dollars or 44.2%. It is estimated that in 1999, the total value will reach to 4.6 billion US dollars which is 20% higher than in 1998. In which non semiconductor ones will be 1.9 billion or 41% and semiconductor ones will reach to 2.8 billion or 59.4% which is 28% higher than 1998. At present, these laser pipes play unique role in corresponding industry, optical saving industry, material processing industry, medical industry, picture recording, printing, testing and sensor industries which has created great effect on human’s life.
1.Main application is in material processing: Material processing mainly includes cut, weld, interface process, mark and hollow metal, plastic, pottery and etc.
2.High development in medical field: In 1996 and 1997, laser developed with 20-30% high speed.
3.Constant requirement in research area: In this area, LD solid laser pipe developed very fast especially in over-fast field.
4.Application in analyzing and medical instrument: In this field, gaseous and ionic laser pipes are used widely.
5.Imaging record: Imaging record includes printing system, medical imaging instrument, printer, fax machine, copycat and etc.
6. Remote sensing application: Remote sensing application includes measure thickness of chemical element of atmosphere, air flow and vegetation of forest. Besides, it also includes automatic anti-bump system of semi-conductor laser pipe.
7. Check, measure and control: Laser application in this field is very small. It is only 1%. But it includes many content. For example, collimation laser system in architecture and agriculture; Non-destroyed measure or laser pipes in machines.
8. Entertainment: This field includes laser entertainment; beam of laser appearance; laser indicator and holographic appearance.
9. Light saving: Laser pipes used for saving light mainly use semiconductor.
10. Photoelectric correspondence: Laser pipe used in photoelectric correspondence mainly adopt semiconductor. Just a few adopt 1310 Nanometer or 1550 Nanometer LD solid laser pipe. There are mainly two types in correspondence field: power of magnifier and signal power of transmitter. In 1998, sale of laser pipe in correspondence reach 1.4 billion US dollars which is 20% higher than in 1997. In 1999, increasing ratio will be 30%. In 1998, sale of solid laser pipe in this field is just 2 million US dollars which is same as in 1999.
11. Entry scanning: Entry scanner mainly adopt semiconductor laser pipe. Just a few old system adopt He-Ne laser pipe (about 30,000pieces/ year). In 1998, sale of semiconductor entry scanner is only 2 million US dollars and the sale will decrease in the future because the price of semiconductor laser pipe has been decreased a lot.
12. New application: New application includes aviation, military, area web and computer application. Aviation and military include commercial navigation, military manoeuvre, distance-measurement system, secondary planet and laser cooling. Area web includes computer area
