One type of ring laser design is a single crystal design, where light reflects around inside the laser crystal so as to circulate in a ring.
If the ship has Psy Bits when he died, a laser crystal will be dropped and the player can get his psy bits (but not their weapon) back.
A second pair of (spherical) lenses image this square beam profile inside the laser crystal.
This is in contrast to producing an ordinary laser crystal at temperatures exceeding 700 C.
Imagine you have a laser crystal which you have just excited, so there is a whole bunch of ions just sitting there waiting to emit.
The medical field has some use for erbium-doped laser crystals for the laser scalpels that are used in laser surgery.
The standard cavity with flat mirrors and a thermal lens in the laser crystal has the smallest beam width on the end-mirrors.
For a soft aperture consider an infinite laser crystal with a thermal lens.
However, its hygroscopic behaviour limits its use as a laser crystal.
Lutetium(III) oxide is an important raw material for laser crystals.