sphere is a hardware render type for particles (at least in my maya 4.5 maybe your maya can do spheres in software). and i think on hardware particles you cannot use a ramp. what you want to to is use a cloud (s/w), limit the number of particles, and give them constant lifetime. this will let the emitter shoot single laser beams out (if you put the right force to the particles) and if they die, there is a new shot from emitter. the color ramp works great on a shader, just connect the ramp to the life color. just make it from yellow->orange->grey and make another from black->white and connect this to life transparency. incalandescence needs to be put up higher as well, so the laser is lit - probably also with a ramp. and dont forget to make the lifetime endless (if you use "life forever" the color wont change with time for one particle).


hope that gets you started.