Best laser diode for night vision optics

oh nice! $125 is a real good price, i used the yukon MPR

High-powered single-mode infrared VCSEL diode may be a good idea, but still, how about the eye safety? That's the only question. So, 1 or 3 Watts 850nm IR LED may be better for safety reasons. (P. S. IR VCSEL over 100mW is difficult to find - been having trouble finding ones, whenever I found it and asked, all I got was a NO.)

Also, I am not surprised about line in the IR vision video as I had 200mW 808nm IR laser diode, any multi-mode, multi-emitter diode will do that.

Yes but we are discussing single emitter diodes, and the M140 is nowhere near that bad.

True.

I personally would just experiment with optics until I can shrink the line into circle (hard and pricey but may be the best solutions for some fincky hardware such as IR camera), or just try a few diodes until I can find one acceptable.

P.S. Duh, I forgot about the fiber-coupled laser diode. :yabbem: It may provide better result since the fiber forces the laser emissions into single mode (depending on core diameter). eBay might have a few you can try. Be sure to try with "sealed" lense module as you want it to be spreaded out to the surface to be illuminated.

I was convinced that it will be easier to find the laser diode is I saw illuminator who had installed a laser diode for example something like this: Laser IR Illuminator Dipol for Night Vision Scope Dovetail Mount 850 New | eBay ie whether anyone knows what the diodes installed in such devices?