The list of products and applications "forged" by the creative use of laser technology is long indeed, from the circuit board and glass display in a smartphone to the high-strength steel making cars and airplanes safer and more fuel-efficient. And we could add life-saving advances in surgery and bioimaging or the vast datacenters now processing and storing the information that drives our world. The list is becoming so long that it could be a game to identify a recent product or service that does not in some way owe a debt to the laser.
In this issue, our annual Laser Market Review & Forecast estimates that 2014 global laser sales will rise 6% from 2013 to $9.3 billion, a trend pretty much in line with the historic compound average growth rate (see page 38). While the laser market keeps its long-term pace, the applications and related markets it has spawned have often experienced phenomenal growth. So this year, the important thing the forecast emphasizes is not the "global headwinds" or "lingering economic fog" of past forecasts—instead, it's the dynamic applications and new markets that lasers are creating.
We have many articles in this issue that describe the emerging markets for all photonics technologies, from a new generation of imaging spectrometers for science, security, and manufacturing (see page 70) to new focal-plane array technologies that can improve infrared camera design (see page 83). There are also articles on making confocal microscopy a much less expensive imaging technique (see page 92), on how thin-disk lasers are beginning to show their true potential in manufacturing (see page 89), and on how optical sensing with fiber lasers is critical for oil and gas exploration, security, and even astrophysics (see page 101).
All the evidence for 2014 supports a great quote from the Market Review & Forecast article: "Photons are the new fuel of the 21st century."
Conard Holton | Editor at Large
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.