Different uses need lasers with different output powers. Lasers that produce a continuous beam or a series of short pulses can be compared on the basis of their average power. Lasers that produce pulses can also be characterized based on the peak power of each pulse. The peak power of a pulsed laser is many orders of magnitude greater than its average power. The average output power is always less than the power consumed.
The continuous or average power required for some uses:
less than 1 mW – laser pointers
5 mW – CD-ROM drive
5–10 mW – DVD player or DVD-ROM drive
100 mW – High-speed CD-RW burner
250 mW – Consumer DVD-R burner
1 W – green laser in current Holographic Versatile Disc prototype development
1–20 W – output of the majority of commercially available solid-state lasers used for micro machining
30–100 W – typical sealed CO2 surgical lasers[26]
100–3000 W (peak output 1.5 kW) – typical sealed CO2 lasers used in industrial laser cutting
1 kW – Output power expected to be achieved by a prototype 1 cm diode laser bar[27]
Examples of pulsed systems with high peak power:
700 TW (700×1012 W) – National Ignition Facility, a 192-beam, 1.8-megajoule laser system adjoining a 10-meter-diameter target chamber.[28]
1.3 PW (1.3×1015 W) – world's most powerful laser as of 1998, located at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory[29]