In modern times, high-speed mirror galvanometers are employed in laser light shows to move the laser beams and produce colorful geometric patterns in fog around the audience. Such high speed mirror galvanometers have proved to be indispensable in industry for laser marking systems for everything from laser etching hand tools, containers, and parts to batch-coding semiconductor wafers in semiconductor device fabrication. They typically control X and Y directions on Nd:YAG and CO2 laser markers to control the position of the infrared power laser spot. Laser ablation, laser beam machining and wafer dicing are all industrial areas where high-speed mirror galvanometers can be found. Closer to home, mirror galvanometers are located in most retail outlets, warehouses, and parcel delivery service providers, in the form of barcode readers for Universal Product Codes and other forms of barcode
This moving coil galvanometer is mainly used to measure very feeble or low currents of order 10^-9 A. To make the magnetic field more strong a soft cylinder is placed inside the coil without touching it.