eli5: How can a laser burn of rust without melting?

Question

I just saw a YouTube video by someone with 2000 W laser and now I wonder how can the laser not melt itself when compared to a lense bundeling sunlight its always said cannot get hotter than the sun itself?

In: Physics

Answer 1

The laser emits light by a different process than most normal things, there is still a limit to the temperature you can achieve with a laser but it’s much higher than for traditional light sources.

Lasers do get hot and big lasers are typically water cooled because of that but that’s due to inefficiency.