Begreppet strålvapen i science fiction är faktiskt mycket äldre än lasrar. Det går åtminstone till den värme strålen som används av martiansna i H. G. Wells världskriget :
Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit, and the ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it.
Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as if each man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire.
[...]
An almost noiseless and blinding flash of light, and a man fell head-long and lay still; and as the unseen shaft of heat passed over them, pine-trees burst into fire, and every dry furze-bush became with one dull thud a mass of flames.
(Världskriget, Kapitel V: Värmestrålen)
Many think that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a light-house projects a beam of light. But no one has absolutely proved these details. However it is done, it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. (The War of the Worlds, Chapter VI: The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road)
E. E. "Doc" Smith använde strålvapen i serien Skylark och Lensman , som också var enormt inflytelserika.
Suddenly the shelling ceased and the Skylark was enveloped by a blinding glare from hundreds of great reflectors; an intense, searching, bluish-violet light that burned the flesh and seared through eyelids and eyeballs into the very brain. "Ultra-violet!" yelled Seaton at the first glimpse of the light, as he threw on the power. "Shut your eyes! Turn your heads down!"
(Space Skylark, Kapitel 18: Invasionen)
Then, while Crane and the women scrambled up off the floor and hurried to the visiplates, Seaton cut in rays six, two-seven, and five-eight. Ray six, “the softener,” was a band of frequencies extending from violet far up into the ultra-violet. When driven with sufficient power, this ray destroyed eyesight and nervous tissue, and its power increased still further, actually loosened the molecular structure of matter.
(Skylark Three, Kapitel V: Första Blood)
Observera att vapnen i båda fallen beskrivs som fokuserade av speglar / reflektorer, utan att använda laserens koherenta ljus, som uppfanns mycket senare: länk
Långt före lasrarna uppfanns faktiskt, strålvapen (strålkastare, sönderdelningsstrålar etc.) hade blivit en vanlig trop av science fiction. Uppfinningen av lasrar i det verkliga livet gav en rimlig * berättigande för dessa vapen, men konceptet var redan väldigt väletablerat.
* Eller åtminstone vagt trovärdigt, i de fall då de visade vapen faktiskt inte alls uppträder som verkliga lasrar: Star Wars turbolasers, till exempel, eldglödande bultar som tydligt rör sig mycket långsammare än ljushastighet, snarare än sammanhängande ljusstrålar som skulle vara osynliga i vakuum.