Phaser

Phasers were a common way of projecting high-energy particle beams. They were used at home for cooking and tools, such as the Phaser Cutter, and also in the military for Phaser weaponry.

In the Home
Phaser Cutters could come with the ability to cut through and weld metal, or in a low power form to cook food, such as in phaser ovens. One ancient equivalent is the Earth device called a Microwave.

In the Military
High intesity phasers were expected to be seen on every starship in the Galaxy. They ranged from low power civilian models suitable for cutting up dangerous space debris such as asteroids and space junk, and high power versions build to cut through the solid steel and titanium alloys that are used to construct starships. Weaponry phasers were either placed in banks or cannons - banks required a small charge up time before firing (usually taking about one second), but were extremely efficient, losing only 12% of energy to light. Cannons did not require a charge up time, and were generally slightly more powerful, but were extremely innefficient, as about 70% of the blast energy was lost as noise and light. In order to defend against phaser attacks, deflector shields were a commonplace addition on starships. Phasers were used in tandem with proton torpedos in order to carry out a full and varied attack.