[Les] likes larger lasers than lots of folks, with his current project being an Nd:YAG (that’s Neodymium:Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) flash pumped laser intended for tattoo removal. Like most of its ilk, the YAG crystal at the heart of that device is a rosy purple color, so when [Les] spotted a Yellow YAG with different doping promising powerful pulses, he purchased it promptly. Specifically, the retailer was claiming a 30-50% efficiency increase for this yellow rod, thanks to cerium doping. His original Nd:YAG rod produced 72.8 mJ pulses, while in the same setup with the yellow laser is peaking at 153 mJ, more than double the original output. That’s another benefit of tossing cerium in there, as apparently it acts as sunscreen for your laser rod.