"Blu"-ray?

I just built my first "blu-ray" laser tonight, and I was kind of surprised at the color of it. It looks nothing at all like the pictures and movies show it, and it is completely unlike blue. It's the exact color of a blacklight, so why would anyone call it a blu-ray?

-Mark

because thats what sony marketed it as

"Purpl-Ray" and "Violet-Ray" don't sound very good or look good in logos, now do they?

rocketparrotlet said:

I just built my first "blu-ray" laser tonight, and I was kind of surprised at the color of it.  It looks nothing at all like the pictures and movies show it, and it is completely unlike blue.  It's the exact color of a blacklight, so why would anyone call it a blu-ray?

-Mark

Click to expand...

You didn't read the sticky, did you?

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1219161671

Peace,
dave

daguin said:

[quote author=rocketparrotlet link=1225335888/0#0 date=1225335888]I just built my first "blu-ray" laser tonight, and I was kind of surprised at the color of it.  It looks nothing at all like the pictures and movies show it, and it is completely unlike blue.  It's the exact color of a blacklight, so why would anyone call it a blu-ray?

-Mark

Click to expand...

You didn't read the sticky, did you?  

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1219161671

Peace,
dave[/quote]

Actually, I did read the sticky. I know why we call the lasers blu-ray; I was wondering why Sony called their product Blu-ray in the first place. I should have stated that better. I mean, you're right, purple-ray and violet-ray don't sound very good, but the color is just so off-base. It's like calling a green laser a blu-ray; it's just not.

The whole class of gallium nitride laser diodes have kind-of always been called "blue lasers".  The gallium nitride system, as it stands now, is in commercial production of both violet and blue laser diodes.  This may be just a language barrier thing, since the people who did all this first were Japanese, not native English-speakers.

So they had these "blue lasers" that were made of gallium nitride, and they kindof figured out which ones/which exact colors were easiest to make (or easiest to make reliable, powerful, and least costly).  I don't know the whole story about how this came about and who "decided" what would be the standard at what point in time, but violet is what got decided upon.  It's probably a combination of easiest to make, lowest wavelength (since the lower the wavelength, the more info on a disk), but not too low of a wavelength (maybe there's a reason they didn't want to go into UV? Maybe a property of the disks themselves?  Not sure), and cheapest to make.

But they've always been called "blue lasers" in many circles.  The first gallium nitride laser made lased at around 400nm, definitely violet, but the book written about the subject by the creator of the thing is titled "The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story".  So the name for the whole class has kindof just always been there.

And, it's all marketing to Sony. If they thought they could sell more products with the name "Fish-Ray", I'm sure it would have been named Fish-Ray.

Also, the general non-lasering public is pretty ignorant about lasers - to them it doesn't matter - it's just a marketing thing. Most people, if you showed them one of these violet 405nm lasers in action, would have no clue that it's the same thing that's in some of the high-end electronic devices they already own.

Okay, that makes it a lot more clear to me.  Thanks!

EDIT: 200th post!

-Mark

Mabye because the discs are blue?

It's not quite the exact colour of a blacklight, those are of lower wavelength, and probably not monochromatic.

Switch said:

It's not quite the exact colour of a blacklight, those are of lower wavelength, and probably not monochromatic.

Click to expand...

I think I've got a pretty low wavelength one, then...is it supposed to be visible in the day? Because I can barely see it at all. I can't even see it 10 feet away.

-Mark

hit a piece of white paper in day time with it. the reason you cant see it well is because the surface your shining it on doesn't fluress(forgot how to spell it) much. No ones bluray looks as blue as the pics, its just the way the pics come out.

rocketparrotlet said:

[quote author=Switch link=1225335888/0#9 date=1225451740]It's not quite the exact colour of a blacklight, those are of lower wavelength, and probably not monochromatic.

Click to expand...

I think I've got a pretty low wavelength one, then...is it supposed to be visible in the day?  Because I can barely see it at all.  I can't even see it 10 feet away.

-Mark[/quote]
It's not just the visibility, it's because the dot looks all blurry.I think blacklights are around 365nm.I think the only diode who came close was smidsy's

Well, a blacklight and blu-ray do look pretty much the same to the eye, even though they have different wavelengths. :

carulli said:

hit a piece of white paper in day time with it. the reason you cant see it well is because the surface your shining it on doesn't fluress(forgot how to spell it) much. No ones bluray looks as blue as the pics, its just the way the pics come out.

Click to expand...

Is that safe? I don't have goggles yet. How far away can it be safely? I've kept the dot always at least 10 feet away on concrete and driveway except for a couple very brief accidental exposures from 5 feet away, and over 75 feet away on surfaces such as street signs.

-Mark

you should be fine unless you stare at the dot for to long, don't hit anything shiny like glass or polished metal as it could reflect into your eye, or someone else's for that matter.