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As noted. there are many problems lasers should have, that said:

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. It is cheap and can be used for many other problems. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)

Edit based on comments:

No counter-measure is perfect, any medium glass, nano or what have you would absorb some energy and as a result of the process, the layers of ice/metal/??? reflective material will become vapour. Before that, it will have reflected an amount of energy that has to do with how fast it will deteriorate. This vapour will be standing in the way. As you write, no mirror is 100% effective, and even if it was, it would have to be kept completely dust free. So the thinking is lets sacrifice quality and go for quantity... After some (micro? mili? nano? seconds, the first layer of ice will be peeled in a massive explosion consuming lots of energy. In the milli seconds scale, chunks of ice would be lunched. Long before any of that, more energy will heat the material - think going to plasma form. Also part of the energy will not be absorbed going deeper, part of it also reflected, though a lot absorbed. As opposed to a closed container, most of the force and gasses will be allowed to escape) It is therefore important to have some really massive layer. Good think that you used a cheap material... Often the army will use sandbags to stop bullets, it is not because it is the most effective (though it is pretty effective) but because it can be cheap and easy to deploy and even (re)build on the spot / fixed after the explosions and dealing with casualties etc... You can even trim down your armour before very long trips and enlarge it when you arrive.

As noted. there are many problems lasers should have, that said:

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. It is cheap and can be used for many other problems. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)

Edit based on comments:

No counter-measure is perfect, any medium glass, nano or what have you would absorb some energy and as a result of the process, the layers of ice/metal/??? reflective material will become vapour. Before that, it will have reflected an amount of energy that has to do with how fast it will deteriorate. This vapour will be standing in the way. As you write, no mirror is 100% effective, and even if it was, it would have to be kept completely dust free. So the thinking is lets sacrifice quality and go for quantity... After some (micro? mili? nano? seconds, the first layer of ice will be peeled in a massive explosion consuming lots of energy. In the milli seconds scale, chunks of ice would be lunched. Long before any of that, more energy will heat the material - think going to plasma form. Also part of the energy will not be absorbed going deeper, part of it also reflected, though a lot absorbed. As opposed to a closed container, most of the force and gasses will be allowed to escape) It is therefore important to have some really massive layer. Good think that you used a cheap material... Often the army will use sandbags to stop bullets, it is not because it is the most effective (though it is pretty effective) but because it can be cheap and easy to deploy and even (re)build on the spot / fixed after the explosions and dealing with casualties etc... You can even trim down your armour before very long trips and enlarge it when you arrive. A laser that big probably is more like what an RPG is to a bullet, so you need a pretty big sandbag :)

As noted. there are many problems lasers should have, that said:

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. It is cheap and can be used for many other problems. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)

As noted. there are many problems lasers should have, that said:

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. It is cheap and can be used for many other problems. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)

Edit based on comments:

No counter-measure is perfect, any medium glass, nano or what have you would absorb some energy and as a result of the process, the layers of ice/metal/??? reflective material will become vapour. Before that, it will have reflected an amount of energy that has to do with how fast it will deteriorate. This vapour will be standing in the way. As you write, no mirror is 100% effective, and even if it was, it would have to be kept completely dust free. So the thinking is lets sacrifice quality and go for quantity... After some (micro? mili? nano? seconds, the first layer of ice will be peeled in a massive explosion consuming lots of energy. In the milli seconds scale, chunks of ice would be lunched. Long before any of that, more energy will heat the material - think going to plasma form. Also part of the energy will not be absorbed going deeper, part of it also reflected, though a lot absorbed. As opposed to a closed container, most of the force and gasses will be allowed to escape) It is therefore important to have some really massive layer. Good think that you used a cheap material... Often the army will use sandbags to stop bullets, it is not because it is the most effective (though it is pretty effective) but because it can be cheap and easy to deploy and even (re)build on the spot / fixed after the explosions and dealing with casualties etc... You can even trim down your armour before very long trips and enlarge it when you arrive.

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)

As noted. there are many problems lasers should have, that said:

Reflective / Refractive Ice

It does not need to be water made. It should have high reflection. It is cheap and can be used for many other problems. As an additional benefit, when the laser hit, it will create gas that will further absorb/distort the laser and hide you.

You might want to have multiple layers for different wavelengths / a way to adjust depending on the wavelength used.

As an additional benefit, your ship would end up looking like a comet when hit ;)