CES 2026 Tech Deep Dive: Laser Types

There was a lot of great new laser tech at CES 2026, including brand new UV (Ultraviolet) lasers from xTool and Creality. In fact, Creality’s new Falcon T1 lets you swap between several different laser modules. That raises the question: what are the different types of lasers and what are they good for?

I’ll go over the most popular laser engraver and cutter technologies on the hobbyist, consumer, and prosumer markets. By the end of this article, you should understand how they differ and which types will suit your needs.

Galvanometer vs. gantry

Before we even get into wavelengths and the electromagnetic spectrum, we first need to cover the physical mechanisms used to get the laser beam to the material. Those can be divided up into two broad categories: mirror galvanometer and gantry.

Mirror galvanometer laser machines, like the xTool F2 Ultra UV and the Creality Falcon T1, use a pair of small mirrors to direct the laser beam from the source to the material. Those mirrors sit right next to each other and tilt to sweep the beam in X and Y axes. The mirrors are very lightweight and move quickly, giving mirror galvanometer lasers the ability to engrave at rapid speed.

The disadvantage of mirror galvanometer lasers is that they tend to have small working areas. To cover a large area without putting the laser beam at an extreme acute angle, the lens would have to be very far from the material and the resulting machine would be much taller than is practical. The distance from the laser’s lens to the material would also very dramatically across the work area, causing focusing issues.

Gantry machines solve that problem by moving either the laser module itself or mirrors linearly along the X and Y axes above the material, similar to a pen plotter or 3D printer. Examples of gantry laser machines include the Creality Falcon A1 and the xTool P3.

Gantry machines can accommodate much larger sheets of material and long CO2 laser tubes, but that comes at the cost of reduced speed. Those machines have to move the carriage around on the gantry system, which is a lot of mass to be zipping around, so acceleration suffers.

Blue diode lasers

Now that you understand the two major machine layouts, we can get into laser types with the most popular on the consumer market: blue diode lasers.

That name is descriptive. “Diode” means that the light comes from a diode — a specialized kind of LED. “Blue” means that the light is literally blue. Most are about 450nm, with some going slightly shorter.

You can find blue diode lasers in both mirror galvanometer and gantry machines. They’re affordable and work on a pretty decent range of materials.

But the big weakness of blue diode lasers is material compatibility with acrylic and metals. That blue light passes right through most acrylic and reflects off of most metal. These lasers will work with very dark opaque acrylic in a pinch and with coated metals, but other laser types are better if you plan to cut or engrave those materials often.

CO2 lasers

Until blue diode lasers became affordable, CO2 lasers were the kings of the hobbyist market. They work by using electricity to excite CO2 and other gasses inside a long glass tube, causing them to emit photons. A system of mirrors then directs that beam of photons around the gantry and to the material.

CO2 laser tubes are quite large and require active water cooling, so they’re really only suitable for fairly big gantry machines in most cases.

The benefit of a CO2 laser is the powerful infrared beam. That is usually about 10,600nm and cuts acrylic extremely well.

In fact, CO2 lasers work great with most materials that aren’t metal. Like blue diode lasers, CO2 lasers tend to simply reflect off of metal. To mark metal, you will need a special spray.

But because they’re so good with acrylic and organic materials, CO2 lasers are a fantastic choice for general use.

Fiber lasers

Fiber lasers also ultimately use a diode to produce light, which is why I like to use the term “blue diode laser” for the first type. If you hear someone simply say “diode laser,” they’re probably referring to a blue diode laser and not a fiber laser.

But fiber lasers are more complicated, using some kind of black magic to amplify the light through an optical fiber doped with rare-earth metals. The actual physics involved there are well beyond my understanding. What is important to know is that fiber laser modules produce strong beams, typically at 1,064nm — though other wavelengths are possible, depending on the doping metal.

That is in the infrared spectrum, just like a CO2 laser. But they’re at very different points on the spectrum, with CO2 laser wavelengths being about ten times longer than fiber laser wavelengths.

Fiber lasers are great for engraving most common metal materials, as well as some plastics. Powerful fiber lasers can even cut through metal. But they’re less efficient when it comes to organic materials. They usually only come in mirror galvanometer machines.

Infrared lasers

The terminology gets a little frustrating here, because there are also 1,064nm diode lasers that are referred to as “infrared lasers.”

But “infrared lasers” are almost always much less powerful than “fiber lasers.” Infrared lasers are constructed differently than fiber lasers and are always 1,064nm, because they don’t use doped optical fiber.

Most infrared lasers are less than 3W. Fiber lasers in prosumer machines, on the other hand, are often 40W or more.

The material compatibility is the same, but you’re never going to cut through metal with an infrared laser. They’re best for engraving and marking metal on a budget, which is why you often see them as optional modules for gantry machines built for blue diode lasers.

MOPA lasers

MOPA (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier) lasers are essentially pulsed fiber lasers. They separate laser generation and amplification, which produces a powerful, high-quality beam. And importantly, that allows for control over pulse length and pulse frequency.

Material combability is generally the same as fiber lasers, but MOPA lasers are more versatile because of how controllable they are. Where a fiber laser might burn or warp material, a MOPA laser can leave a clean cut. That control also allows for precise adjustment, so you can tweak the color of markings more easily.

It is usually safe to think of MOPA lasers as better fiber lasers. The only real disadvantage to a MOPA laser compared to a fiber laser is the cost, but that gap has been closing as manufacturers embrace MOPA lasers in the prosumer market.

UV lasers

Finally, we get the newest and most exotic of the bunch: UV lasers. These have only just started trickling down into the prosumer market and these “cold lasers” are very hot right now.

UV lasers sometimes receive that “cold laser” moniker because they excel at engraving without imparting much heat into the surrounding material. They can, for example, cut paper without burning the edges.

As the name suggests, UV lasers operate in the ultraviolet range around 355nm. And though today’s UV laser modules are just as big as MOPA laser modules (or even bigger), they’re typically much lower power: around 5-10W.

However, you shouldn’t think of them as weak. They focus the laser beam into a very tiny dot that engraves with fine detail and also packs a strong punch. The “cold laser” part happens because the UV photons are able to break molecular bonds, rather than relying on heat to burn away material.

There are all kinds of practical advantages to that. I’ve cut through metal with a ComMarker Omni X 5W UV laser that could also engrave a high-resolution image on the surface of a dry leaf. Fiber lasers are great for everything from deep metal engraving to marking on sensitive electronic components, like IC chips.

UV lasers also have a really cool party trick: the ability to engrave in 3D inside of crystal. I made an entire video about that, if you’re curious how it works:

These UV lasers only came to the prosumer market recently and they’re still pricey. But if you have the budget, they’re definitely worth considering.

Conclusion

Now you have some context when you see all of those fancy new laser machines at CES. In the consumer space, virtually every available machine will fit into one of the categories described above.

If you’re on a budget and want a general-purpose machine, a blue diode laser or CO2 laser is a good choice. Many gantry-based blue diode laser machines also have optional infrared laser modules, expanding their material compatibility.

If you’ve got more money to spend and want to work with metal, a fiber or MOPA laser is a good choice.

If you’ve got more money to spend, want to work with metal, might engrave heat-sensitive parts, and also want some interesting new capabilities, a UV laser is the way to go.

And many machines now combine multiple laser types, so you don’t have to sacrifice anything. Blue diode and fiber laser combinations are common. Then you have the upcoming Creality Falcon T1, which has swappable modules for blue diode, fiber, MOPA, and UV lasers.