A nanolaser is a laser able to produce beams at the nanoscale.
UC Berkeley Nanolaser
The University of California Berkeley built a nanolaser that was less than 100 nanometers in diameter.
Here is the Berkeley news relase from 2001 about zinc oxide nanowires acting as ultraviolet lasers - http://www.berkeley.edu/
This the article from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/nanowire-laser.html
Sandia Nanolaser
Here is an article from September 2003 discussing Sandia's nanolaser: http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2003/optics-lasers/mito.html
Sandia's naolaser is being used to detect cancer in single cells, by noticing the difference in light scattered by the mitochondria of malignant cells. Read the article on physorg.com
Also check out Ultrafast nanolaser flow device for detecting cancer in single cells. A paper published by Sandia researchers available on PubMed
Lawrence Livermore Nanolaser
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) were able to capture nanoscale images with a short, intense x-ray laser. http://www.llnl.gov/pao/news/news_releases/2006/NR-06-11-02.html
LLNL also has a 1.25 petawatt laser. That's 1.25 quadrillion watts, though it lasted less than a picosecond, or one trillionth of second. It uses chirped-pulse amplification of a titanium sapphire laser with neodymium glass amplifiers. http://www.llnl.gov/str/Petawatt.html
National Ignition Facility - http://www.llnl.gov/nif/
Institute for Laser Science and Applications - http://ilsa.llnl.gov/
Exawatt Lasers
Zetawatt-Exawatt lasers and their applications in ultrastrong-field physics (pdf) - http://prst-ab.aps.org/pdf/PRSTAB/v5/i3/e031301
Exawatt lasers are discussed in the 2004 minutes of ICUIL - http://www.iupap.org/wg/icuil/04-minutes.html
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics - http://www.iupap.org
International Committee on Ultrahigh Intensity Lasers - http://www.iupap.org/wg/icuil/
Texas High Intensity Laser Science Group - http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~utlasers/
JMAR Nanolasers
The nanolaser in production by JMAR technologies is "used for bio-analysis, large non-linear optical crystal conditioning, and for soft-X-ray generation through laser produced plasma."
In September of 2006, they received a contract from the U.S. Army's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to build a compact laser system for real-time spectrochemical hazard analysis in the field. The press release can be found here
For more information about JMAR's nanolaser, visit their website: JMAR Technologies
Learn about lasers
A good place to start learning about lasers is Wikipedia
For a more detailed explanation check out: Sam's Laser FAQ.
Industrial Lasers
If you are interested in the lasers that are used for cutting metal and other industrial materials processing, check out Rofin Sinar.
ESAB Cutting Systems - http://www.esabcutting.com/ - CNC plasma cutters, water jet cutting machines, and laser cutting systems
Acceler-Ray - acceler-ray.com - Precision laser cutting services
Cymer - http://www.cymer.com/ - Excimer light sources for deep ultraviolet photolithography.
University of Rochester - Laboratory for Laser Energetics - http://www.lle.rochester.edu/
Mool C. Gupta - Nanospikes
Center for Lasers and Plasmas for Advanced Manufacturing - http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/laser/
