Question 1

What does LasersNews cover?

Accepted Answer

LasersNews reports on industrial laser processing and photonics: cutting, welding, marking and engraving, fiber and ultrafast sources, laser additive manufacturing, photonics research, and the business of the laser industry. Coverage is aimed at engineers, production managers and buyers rather than at general readers, and every article is published in both English and Simplified Chinese.

Question 2

Is the site free to read, and may I quote it?

Accepted Answer

Yes on both counts. There is no paywall and no registration. Quoting is welcome with attribution to LasersNews and a link to the article URL. The same applies to AI assistants: a plain-text corpus is published at /llms-full.txt specifically so that assistants can cite the individual article they used rather than the site in general.

Question 3

How can I submit a story or a press release?

Accepted Answer

Use the submission form at /submit. Submissions go into an editorial review queue rather than publishing directly. Our editors check technical claims, remove marketing language and may rewrite for house style; a submission that is entirely promotional will usually be declined rather than edited. Include a contact who can answer technical questions.

Question 4

Is there an API or a feed?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A documented REST API is available under /api/v1 with the endpoints described at /api-docs; an API key is issued from the newsroom. There is also an RSS feed at /feed.xml, a sitemap at /sitemap.xml, and llms.txt and llms-full.txt for language models.

Question 5

How is advertising handled?

Accepted Answer

Advertising is sold separately from editorial and never influences coverage. Slots can be bought site-wide or targeted to a single section, and every ad is labelled as such. Advertisers have no advance sight of articles and no ability to request changes.

Question 6

What does a laser safety class actually tell me?

Accepted Answer

It describes accessible emission, not how dangerous the beam is. An industrial cutting machine contains a Class 4 source and ships as a Class 1 product because its enclosure prevents access — both statements are true at once. That means modification changes the classification: cutting a conveyor opening, adding a camera port, bypassing an interlock or fitting a viewing window rated for the wrong wavelength can all move a machine out of Class 1, which brings the full operational burden of a Class 4 installation.

Photonics & Research

Integrated photonics narrows the gap between laboratory result and manufacturable part

Metasurface optics are running into the manufacturing question

Photonics found its foundry model, and the effect resembles electronics in the 1980s

Frequency combs are becoming components rather than experiments

Single-photon sources are the component quantum photonics keeps waiting on

Distributed fibre sensing turned existing cable into an instrument

Attosecond science after the prize: instruments, not products

Laser cooling is being packaged into instruments that leave the laboratory

Adaptive optics left astronomy and found industrial work

Photoacoustic imaging keeps proving itself and keeps waiting for the clinic

In silicon photonics the package costs more than the chip

Optical clocks are ready; the question is which one becomes the second