The first lecture of my first ever Lasers course at Uni was quite interesting. The lecturer explained that L.A.S.E.R. stood for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, which most of us, sort of knew, but he also said that the term laser was actually a bit of a misnomer, the real term should have been L.O.S.E.R., where the O stands for Oscillation.
I know he was trying to make a joke, bear in mind that we are talking about a physics lecturer here, so the standards of what constitutes humour and jokes are pretty different to that of normal human beings, but he did have a point, a L.A.S.E.R. is really a Superluminescent diode or SLD. The oscillation that is missing from the well known acronym makes all the difference. An optical cavity allows oscillation, which coupled with the gain medium, permits LOASING action. I really like the way physicists refer to a laser emitting light as lasing action, it sounds like some sort of kinky sexual act.
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