Generally speaking, Fiber Lasers are categorized by the following attributes :

• Source – Wavelengths can be varied for various applications by mixing the source laser with certain rare-earth material.  Examples include Thulium-doped lasers and Erbium-doped lasers
• Mode – There are two modes of laser light delivery (the Laser Beam);  single mode and multi-mode.  Single-mode fiber lasers are smaller (between 8 – 9 microns) while multi-mode fiber lasers operate between 50 – 100 microns
• Power – expressed in watts representing the average power of the laser beam.  The higher the power (higher wattage) the greater the cutting energy
• Pulse – Laser beams are either pulsed at a set frequency to reach peak power (pulsed fiber lasers) or continuous-wave with a constant amount of energy