From the article... wrote:The Japanese boffins have come up with a way of making small, high-power lasers out of ceramics. Their protoype unit is made from two yttrium-aluminum-gallium (YAG) segments, one doped with neodymium, the other with chromium. It is just 9mm in diameter and 11mm long, and by using bursts of pulses less than a nanosecond in duration it can ignite a volume of lean fuel-air mix at two points simultaneously - this develops power more quickly and efficiently than lighting at just one point.