O conceito de armas de raio na ficção científica é na verdade muito mais antigo que os lasers. Ela remonta pelo menos ao Raio de Calor usado pelos marcianos na Guerra dos Mundos de H. G. Wells:
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.
(A Guerra dos Mundos, Capítulo V: O Raio de Calor)
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. "Doc" Smith usou armas de feixe nas séries Skylark e Lensman , que também foram enormemente influentes.
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!"
(O Skylark do Espaço, Capítulo 18: A Invasão)
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, Capítulo V: Primeiro Sangue)
Note que em ambos os casos as armas são descritas como sendo focalizadas por espelhos / refletores, não usando a luz coerente de um laser, que foi inventada muito mais tarde: link
Muito antes de os lasers terem sido inventados, armas de raio (armas de raios, raios desintegradores, etc.) haviam se tornado um tropo comum de ficção científica. A invenção dos lasers na vida real forneceu uma justificativa plausível para essas armas, mas o conceito já estava bem estabelecido.* Ou pelo menos vagamente plausível, nos casos em que as armas mostradas realmente não se comportam como lasers do mundo real: turbolasers Star Wars, por exemplo, raios brilhantes que se movem claramente mais lentamente que a velocidade da luz, em vez de feixes coerentes de luz que seriam invisíveis no vácuo.