What is the difference between CO2 and YAG lasers?
While there are many different types of lasers, at this time there are really only 2 families of lasers that have the efficiency and output power to perform large-scale material processing: CO2 and YAG. CO2 lasers are gas lasers that use carbon dioxide as the lasing medium. YAG’s are solid-state lasers that use the element Neodymium (Nd) diffused in a crystal of Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (YAG) as the lasing medium. Beam Dynamics uses a range of powerful sealed CO2 lasers that emit far-infrared light at a wavelength of 10.6 microns. This wavelength is highly effective in processing a wide range of materials including wood, paper, plastics, glass, textiles, rubber and metals. Gas lasers are very rugged—the material that creates the beam is a gas and therefore cannot be damaged. Solid-state lasers use a crystal to generate the beam. The crystal rods are very expensive—several thousand dollars for an industrial size laser. If the laser is improperly tuned or operated the crystal can be almos
