How do crystallurgy weapons work? -> component descriptions

[Kamog]

OK, what's a fusion beam? I know what a fusion reactor is, it generates energy by combining deuterium / tritium atoms into helium, and part of the mass is converted to energy in the process. So does a fusion beam mean that it is a stream of particles that are combining to form heavier elements within the beam itself? That must be difficult to achieve, because it takes enormous pressures to bring the nucleii close enough for the nuclear fusion to occur, and that's not going to happen when the beam is traveling through open space. Maybe a fusion beam is simply a powerful laser that is powered by a nuclear fusion reactor?

So, do ripper beams and incinerator beams consist of a stream of particles, or are they a form of electromagnetic radiation which are waves? I suppose the question of wave vs. particle may be irrelevant because they are the same thing because of duality. Lasers are both waves and particles because photons (and, in fact all particles), are also waves - it just depends on the observation method or experiment that is used to look at it.