Superlaser

A superlaser was an immensely powerful type of laser. They were often loosely defined as being lasers capable of delivering energy greater than 1 gram of annihilated matter (or one kilotonne of explosive force) per second. This equated to an immense amount of energy, and many superlasers had power outputs far in excess of this.

Superlasers were used as weapons, including on starships and space stations like the Death Star. They were also used as tools for large scale mining and planetary engineering. They were occasionally to destroy large asteroids that threatened a nearby planet. Superlasers required an enormous amounts of power. This power could come from an antimatter reactor, but more often came from a hypermatter annihilation reactor or a white hole reactor.

Mechanism
Superlasers drew their power from a large power source, such as a hypermatter reactor or a white hole reactor. The power could be transferred electrically or fibreoptically, but often it was simply channeled as an energy beam through a magnetic- and vacuum sealed shaft.

Various mechanisms were used to bend and focus the beams. One very effective method include Khyber Crystals, which were used on board the Death Star battle stations. Khyber Crystals employed viism to focus the superlaser beams, as well as to join various tributary beams into a single main beam. In this way, the superlaser beams never needed to actually touch any material objects, which solved the problem of creating materials durable enough to withstand the immense energy.

Superlaser beams were so energetic that particles of matter and antimatter often formed and re-annihilated within them. This limited their range, as these particles would disperse the energy of the beam and after a while render is useless. Various mechanisms were employed to straighten and align the energy rays within the beam to ensure that particles did not collide with one another.

Uses
Superlasers could be used to devastating effect as weapons, thanks to their immense power. Superlasers were often so huge that their energy could damage or even destroy entire planets, and thus they could be used to subjugate entire star-systems with ease. These devices could also be used against capital ships, being able to annihilate large ships within a fraction of a second, a feat that would take hours or even days with regular weaponry.

Superlasers were so immensely powerful that their targeting ability was limited. Often, the systems needed to power them took hours or even days to recharge between shots.

Smaller superlasers were used for mining operations, being able to crack open asteroids and small planetoids and allow the minerals in their interiors to be extracted. They were also used for surface mining and refineries, such as on Geonosis.

Superlasers were also be used by advanced civilizations to protect valuable planets against asteroid impacts, vaporizing asteroids before they hit.

Superlasers were occasionally used for scientific operations. Specifically, they were used to make artificial black holes.