ABSTRACT
Richard Shoemaker Since the operation of the first laser in 1960, literally hundreds of different laser varieties have been developed and the light that they produce is being used in thousands of applications ranging from precision measurement to materials processing to medicine. Underlying all this variety, however, is a small set of basic physical principles upon which laser operation, laser beam propagation and the interaction of laser beams with matter depend. The explanation of these principles is the subject of this section.
