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Gas lasers use a gas as the gain medium. The most common example is the CO2 laser, which is powerful and efficient, typically used for cutting, welding, and engraving.

Solid-state lasers use a solid gain medium, like a crystal impregnated with ions (e.g., Nd:YAG laser). They are used in a variety of applications including medicine, range finding and laser targeting.

Dye lasers use organic dyes in liquid solutions as the gain medium and can produce a wide range of wavelengths. These are tunable and used in spectroscopy and biomedical imaging.

Fiber lasers use specially designed optical fibers as the gain medium, doped with rare-earth elements like erbium. They offer high output power and are used in telecommunications and materials processing.

Excimer lasers are based on reactive gases that form a dimer to produce laser light, primarily in the ultraviolet range. These are used in semiconductor manufacturing and LASIK eye surgery.

Semiconductor lasers, also known as diode lasers, use the electronic states of semiconductor materials to produce laser light. Common in pointers, printing, and fiber-optic communications.

Quantum cascade lasers are semiconductor lasers that emit in the mid- to far-infrared range. They are used for chemical sensing and spectroscopy because they can be tailored to specific absorption lines.