I hate it when so called science bits are so poorly written ( not your fault). It is NOT a friggin electric laser. The lasing medium is a crystal ( garnet ——first proof of lasing in solid state device used ruby). I guess what they are really trying to say is that the lasing can be initiated by electrical pulse or input from an eletrically driven device ( eg LED or laser diode). These is just a series of oscillators and has been the competing idea for a long time. Chemical lasers (aside from scalability and other issues) are just too darned tough to work with (even in the lab).
Thanks for your input. You are certainly better than the above “author”.