Laser light can be used for materials processing in nearly every major sector. For example, machines for processing sheet metal over 25 metres wide are used as laser welding portals in shipyards. The automobile industry has also introduced the widespread use of welding robots, which can perform up to 100 welded joints per minute.

But the laser is also capable of creating very tiny and intricate structures. An example of such a structure is the stent, a miniature wire mesh tube used for propping open coronary arteries. Lasers can also inscribe entire documents on a single hair without any effort. The smallest structures of all are created by the laser in semiconductor lithography. 90 nanometres (nm) are the current state of technology. A comparison: if the streets were 90 nm in width, a road map of Germany could fit on a fingernail.

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