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"Laser" actually refers only to the generation technique and the resulting phase coherence of the resulting photons. Lasers don't have to be particularly tightly focused. In fact if you've got a laser pointer at home, there's may be a lens on it you can take off, and there will be quite a spread on it. It is focused down by a lens and if you look carefully at the resulting spot you can see interference speckles from the focusing lens. Without the lens the laser will lack those speckles and you'll get a uniform, much larger spot from the raw laser.


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