Star Trek

i think it would be an ionized laser. here's my vision: a laser ( like a high powered laser pointer) is projected from the gun. this beam would then be charged with an electric charge ( i know i'm not explaining this well, but hang with me) and could either be set to a high charge (kill) or a low charge (stun). what do you think/ what are your ideas? 

Possibly even a propelled plasma ball

Or you can use a focusing crystal that would be designed in such a way that the laser light would reflect around on the inside of the crystal where other various particles are added that would then create a more intense beam of energy when the laser is released through the emitter.

Check out the National Ignition Facility for more detail. They bounce a laser light through many stages that creates a more powerful beam as a result.

If the same process can be created in the form of a hand held weapon then you have your first phaser.

I suspect they combine several microwave-frequency bursts, to maximize potential damage (depending upon the setting).  You might read:

http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-37-4-446

Let's just build a time machine, go into the future, and steal one from the Enterprise.

spamming again. i have a suggestion for us both: read our posts and too see if they mak sens and then spell check, an see if they are worth psting

You don't even know what spam is! Spam was like when we randomly posted smiley faces. Spam ISN'T when you post a joke. Jokes are allowed. They're not spam. Now do your resaerch.

dude, THAT was a joke! I reccommended that we spellcheck our posts and to see if they made sense, when mine didn't and half the words were spelled wrong! don't be so quick to take offense! and you spelled research wrong

I would bet my next promotion to science division to the idea that a phaser is a souped up electrolaser (you use a standard UV laser to ionize a path in the air and then zap a spark through it), that at least can get the levels stun to first kill levels, if you add some power to the laser you get the higher levels (warm a rock, melt a rock, vaporize someone...)

and as to adjust frequency, well... instead of your standard laser you can use a free electron laser.

I think a Star Trek book says the crystal that focuses the laser beam for a phaser is lithium copper.  This could use a Gilman reageant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilman_reagent) or a Grignard reageant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grignard_reaction).

There was a book published in 1983 called "Beam Defence an Alternative to Nuclear Destruction" by the scientific staff of the Fusion Energy Foundation!  

*U.S. & Russian particle beam weapons have been found to be efficient but, are impractically, massive particle accelerators!

*The U.S. Army has a high energy laser weapon called Zues!

Here is a recently made phaser that actually works.

http://www.webpronews.com/guy-builds-functional-star-trek-phaser-in-garage-2012-04

The next phase that the designer would need to go through would be to add a phase coil similar to how the National Ignition Facility creates a more powerful laser from a single beam. The great thing about technology is the more technology advances every two years the ability to create smaller components and circuitry that will allow a real tunable phaser to work on multiply settings will no longer be just an imagine from a 1900's black and white exhibition pamphlet.

https://lasers.llnl.gov/education/how_lasers_work.php

The phaser, similar to a laser, is really only the next generation of the master technology that has been around since the early decades of the 20th Century.

A phaser, being a Phased Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, then wouldn't be that difficult to produce.  Since all maser derivitives are little more than rectified light (synchonous wavelengths of radiation), it's simply a matter of producing a device that can emit multiple laser/maser beams of varying amplitudes (to control the power output) while still maintaining the same frequency (the phase of the light wave).

In 2009 Defense Contractor, Northrop Grumman, announced that they had successfully built and tested an electrically powered solid-state phased laser prototype capable of producing a 100kW beam, powerful enough to destroy an airplane. According to the US Army, this electrically powered laser is capable of being mounted in an aircraft, ship, or other vehicle.

Sounds like a Phaser to me.

Honestly the hand to hand weapons in Trek are usually quite inferior to what we have today.  Phaser beams travel so slow you can sometimes dodge them. They have no machine gun equivilent, and artillery, no mortars, nothing of that sort ever.

As for support vehicles, it's almost always walk there or fly in the starship. No fighters, no tanks, nothing like that.