Below my computer monitor I have one of those Belkin power station, 6
switched AC outlets, you know what is it.  Well, all the 6 switches have
one NEON lamp inside, that lits when the correspondent outlet is
energized.  Five of those lamps emit an orange steady light from both
pins inside (AC does that, DC lite only one pin - the negative I
suppose).  There is one lamp that is pretty unstable, I already see that
around, the light is not quiet, it jumps up and down the pins in a very
unstable situation.  Perhaps there is lower neon concentration, or
something like that.

Now the interesting point, and I would love to see some explanation,
since I am not that good in neon physics.

I am playing with few lasers and galvos and stepper motors and mirrors,
you know the mess around, and I noticed by accident that sometimes that
particular neon lamp gets a very steady light. 10 minutes later I
noticed that the light gets steady only when the lasers are operating.
hmmm. So, I grabbed a battery operated laser pointer and spotted
directly over the unstable lamp... and... voila!!! it gets a very steady
neon light, it simply stopped jumping over the pins.

Of course that I stopped everything else I was doing and concentrated my
attention to the fact.  I am able to change a ionized light with a weak
laser beam. Then I noticed that the laser doesn't need to hit the lamp
directly, a small surrounding laser does the same effect.

What is the explanation? The laser can change something in the
ionization? hmmm. perhaps not, and to test it I grabbed a simple
flashlight and ... badabim... the same effect.  Any light beam over the
lamp changes the jumping ionization to a steady one.

I didn't measure the AC current at the neon lamp, but it could change in
presence or not of light... a photo sensor?

Any logical explanation?  What could be the effect of photons in neon
gas?

Can you imagine a board with zillions of tinny neon gas balls with an
adjustable polarization voltage not enough to lite them by itself, but a
scan of a laser beam would lite them and keep them lited? huh? can you
imagine the low cost of it? no addressing lines, no drivers... a fast
low voltage pulse would wipe off the image and turn off everything...

Any expert in neon physics here?