The team of scientists blasted a Ytterbium atom suspended in air with a laser beam.

ENGADGET: Researchers capture a single atom's shadow, has implications for quantum computers

The front headlamps of the Concept GLA are each fitted with a laser-beam projector.

ENGADGET: Mercedes-Benz GLA concept puts laser projectors in headlights, redefines SUV

Holograms are interference patterns generated by the interaction of a blank reference laser beam with a second beam that has been reflected from an object of interest.

ECONOMIST: Researchers can now broadcast moving holograms

And, just as light waves of the same frequency can be made to resonate in step with one another and so form a laser beam, it should be possible to make atoms of the same element resonate similarly.

ECONOMIST: The 2001 Nobel prizes: Playing catch-up | The

According to the automaker, laser lighting can produce a forward beam with an intensity a thousand times greater than conventional LEDs, but with half the energy consumption.

FORBES: BMW Developing Lasers for Cars

While the driving lights are the first use of a laser beam reflected off a mirror, the daytime running lamps, with their characteristic "torch" effect, and the indicator lights use LEDs.

ENGADGET: Mercedes-Benz GLA concept puts laser projectors in headlights, redefines SUV