A self-contained, hand-held device for delivering laser pulses, the device comprising: a device body configured to be handheld by a user; a laser device supported in the device body, the laser device including an edge-emitting laser beam source having an emitter surface configured to emit laser radiation at a defined power and at a wavelength in the range of 1400-1500 nm or 1800-2600 nm; an outlet end configured to be manually moved across a target surface; wherein the emitter surface of the laser beam source is arranged such that when the outlet end is in contact with the target surface, the emitter surface is spaced from the target surface by less than 10 mm; and electronics configured to pulse the laser beam source to emit a sequence of pulsed beams with a defined pulse duration to the target surface to generate an array of irradiated spots on the target surface, wherein adjacent irradiated spots generated on the target surface are spaced apart from each other by non-irradiated areas of the target surface; wherein each pulse beam is divergent in at least one direction with at least one corresponding divergence angle upon passing outwardly through the outlet end of the device and upon incidence with the target surface; wherein each irradiated spot on the target surface has an instantaneous area of less than 1.0 mm 2; wherein the device includes no optics downstream of the laser beam source; and wherein the at least one divergence angle of each pulsed beam, the pulse duration of each pulsed beam, and the defined power of the laser beam source are selected such that the divergent radiation of the pulsed beams emitted from the outlet end of the device meets the Class 1M or better eye safety classification according to the IEC 60825-1: 2007: standards for diverging radiation in the wavelength range of 1400 nm to 1500 nm and 1800 nm to 2600 nm. a device body configured to be handheld by a user; a laser device supported in the device body, the laser device including an edge-emitting laser beam source having an emitter surface configured to emit laser radiation at a defined power and at a wavelength in the range of 1400-1500 nm or 1800-2600 nm; an outlet end configured to be manually moved across a target surface; wherein the emitter surface of the laser beam source is arranged such that when the outlet end is in contact with the target surface, the emitter surface is spaced from the target surface by less than 10 mm; and electronics configured to pulse the laser beam source to emit a sequence of pulsed beams with a defined pulse duration to the target surface to generate an array of irradiated spots on the target surface, wherein adjacent irradiated spots generated on the target surface are spaced apart from each other by non-irradiated areas of the target surface; wherein each pulse beam is divergent in at least one direction with at least one corresponding divergence angle upon passing outwardly through the outlet end of the device and upon incidence with the target surface; wherein each irradiated spot on the target surface has an instantaneous area of less than 1.0 mm 2; wherein the device includes no optics downstream of the laser beam source; and wherein the at least one divergence angle of each pulsed beam, the pulse duration of each pulsed beam, and the defined power of the laser beam source are selected such that the divergent radiation of the pulsed beams emitted from the outlet end of the device meets the Class 1M or better eye safety classification according to the IEC 60825-1: 2007: standards for diverging radiation in the wavelength range of 1400 nm to 1500 nm and 1800 nm to 2600 nm.