The leading sublight directed energy weapon used by Starfleet is the Phaser. Not just a weapon the phaser has many usage's from cutting and mining to energy transfer. Phaser is the common term used for a complicated energy release process developed to replace pure EM devices such as the laser and particle beam accelerators. Phaser is a holdover acronym, PHASed Energy Rectification, referring to the original process by which stored or supplied energy entering the phaser system was converted into another form, without the need for an intermediate energy transformation. This remains essentially true to the current phaser effect.

Rapid Nadion Effect.

Phaser energy is released through the application of the rapid nadion effect (RNE). Rapid nadions are short lived sub atomic particles possessing special properties related to high-speed interactions with atomic nuclei. Among these properties is the ability to liberate and transfer strong nuclear forces within a particular class of superconducting crystals known as fushigi-no-umi (so named by Starfleets Tokyo R&D facility).

Shipboard Phasers.

Shipboard phasers come in various types those of the Enterprise-D are the most common the large Type X emitters. Individual emmiter segments are capable of directing 5.1 megawatts, in comparison to hand units Type I and II being limited to 0.01MW. A typical large phaser array such as the large saucer arrays on Starfleet vessels consist of two hundred emitter segments in a dense linear arrangement for optimal control of firing order, thermal effects, field halos and target impact. Groups are supplied by individual sets of energy feeds from the primary trunks of the electro plasma system interconnected by fire control, thermal management and sensor lines. The visible hull surface configuration of the phaser is a long shallow raised strip, the bulk of the workings being submerged below the surface of the hull.

The first stage of the array is the EPS submaster which is the principle mechanism controlling the phaser levels for firing. The flow regulator leads into the plasma distribution manifold (PDM), which branches into two hundred supply conduits to an equal number of prefire chambers. The final stage is the emitter crystal.

Activation Sequence.

Upon receiving command to fire the EPS submaster flow regulator manages the energetic plasma powering the phaser array through a series of physical irises and magnetic switching gates. Iris response is 0.01 seconds and is used for gross adjustments in plasma distribution; magnetic gate response is about 0.0003 seconds and is employed for rapid fine tuning of plasma routing within small sections of an array . Normal control of all irises and gates is affected through the autonomic side of the phaser function command processor coordinated with the Threat assessment and tracking system (TA/T/TS).

Energy is conveyed from each flow regulator to the PDM a secondary computer-controled valving device at the head end of each prefire chamber. The manifold is a single crystal boronite solid. The prefire chamber is a sphere of LiCu 518. It is within the prefire chamber that the energy from the plasma undergoes the handoff and initial EM spectrum shift associated with the rapid nadion effect. The energy is confined for between 0.05 and 1.3 nanoseconds by a collapsible charge barrier before passing to the emitter for discharge. The power level set by the responsible officer determines the relative proportion of protonic charge that will be crated and the pulse frequency in the final emmiter stage.

Beam Emission. The collimated energy beam exits from one or more of the facets of the emitter crystal depending on which prefire chambers are being pumped with plasma. The segment firing order, as controlled by the phaser function command processor, together with facet discharge direction determines the final beam vector. Energy form all discharged segments passes directly over neighboring segments due to force coupling, converging on the release point where the beam will emerge and travel at light speed to the target. Narrow beams are created by rapid segment order firing; wider fan or cone beams result from slower firing rates. Wide beams are of course prone to a marked power loss over unit area covered.