looking to buy brightest diode laser.

So I want to own the brightest diode handheld laser. For the longest time I thought this title went to the 1 watt 520s, but I have been hearing that some of the blue diodes may be brighter. Does anyone have personal experience comparing a 1 watt 520 to blue lasers? Mainly I am interested in beam brightness, not dot, and burning is only secondary. I plan on buying the laser from a builder, so if you are one could you list prices of the brightest lasers you can make. I will likely make a purchase in a few months, but I am planning ahead. Thank you :thanks:

While my 520nm doesn't quite top 1W (it's power is about 800mW) I can for sure say that to my eyes the 4W 465nm I own is a bit brighter to me. Don't get me wrong they're both insanely bright, but the 4W of 465nm just can't be beat by my 520. It really is a great looking wavelength.

Right now, I'd say you can't beat the NDG7475 (520nm) for single emitters once it gets over 1W. Might want to wait for the NUBM08E to be thoroughly tested though. Maybe a long shot, but around/above 9W, 450nm might very well start to beat the 1.4W of 520nm.

Get a NDG7475. It's excessively bright. Far brighter than anything else I own, and the brightness calculators agree. Also, its beam specs are very good for a multimode diode, so just get that one. :beer:

Does anyone have a 1,4 watt 520 they could sell, or could build me one? How much would it cost?

green lasers rock said:

Does anyone have a 1,4 watt 520 they could sell, or could build me one? How much would it cost?

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My 1.4W 520 cost me around $280, but that was an exception because a forum member sent me a driver for free. Normally a 1.4W 520 will cost around $300 to build.

green lasers rock said:

Does anyone have a 1,4 watt 520 they could sell, or could build me one? How much would it cost?

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Since you are only 14 years old, I doubt anyone would.
If your parents will buy a diode they can get one here--also can get the correct driver and lens for it to be capable of ~1.5W : https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/ndg-1w-520nm
Don't forget appropriate laser goggles for 520nm see: http://www.survivallaserusa.com/Safety_Goggles/cat1667093_1527285.aspx


Since you seem to have fascination/interest in "laser beams" for whatever reasons, here is some information about the reality of beams and visibility.
You realize that a laser beam in a vacuum no matter how powerful is not visible ---right?
You never actually see the laser beam --what you see is the reflections from particles in the air.

Laser beam visibility is highly dependent on ever changing atmospheric conditions and aerosols in the air.

Seeing the "beam" at all depends upon atmospheric conditions--a beam you can see extremely well in fog or area with high concentration of particulate matter in the air can be almost invisible in clean clear air

At sea-level, one cubic inch (1 inch x 1 inch x 1 inch) (16.39 cm3) of "air" contains approximately 400 billion billion (4*1020) air molecules, each moving at about 1600 km/hr (1000 miles/hr), and colliding with other molecules and anything else they come into contact with about 5 billion times per second. This is the reason for "air pressure". The amount of particles in that air that can reflect a portion of a laser beam's light back to your eye determines if you can see it or not.

"In a vacuum, the laser beam itself would be invisible - regardless of power or color. As a laser beam passes through Earth's Atmosphere some of the photons encounter large airborne particles which reflect some of the light back to an observer. This only creates intermittent tiny bright flashes of light or "knots" in the beam - it is not why we can see the beam itself.

It is extremely small airborne particles called aerosols having a diameter significantly less than the wavelength of the light that causes the beam to become visible.

The effect of minute particles scattering light is called Rayleigh scattering and it's most noticeable effect is to turn the daytime sky blue. Rayleigh scattering causes photons to be scattered in a roughly spherical manner around these particles. Some of the light is scattered forward (in the direction of the beam), a lesser amount is scattered to the sides and about the same amount that is scattered forward is scattered backwards towards the light source. This backwards scattering is why the beam is more visible to people standing near the astronomer using it, than people standing some distance to the side. The more of these minute particles there are in the atmosphere, the more Rayleigh scattering there is."
From: RASC Calgary Centre - The Atmosphere, Astronomy and Green Lasers. For more detailed information see link here: http://calgary.rasc.ca/atmosphere.htm

Yes precisely. When I talk about beam visibility I mean two laser compared in identical conditions. For example a typical night outside. As you mentioned light in the blue wavelengths scatters more easily, thus causing the sky to appear blue. This could in turn lead to a blue laser with a much lower lumen output yielding a higher visibility than a brighter laser when the beams encounter obstacles such as minute particles suspended in the atmosphere. This makes the question of the worlds brightest laser very debatable. Also, comparing the brightness of two different colors of lasers a tricky, becuase brightness in different colors represents itself differently. I find pondering the question interesting though, as there seems to be no concrete answer. It looks like for me I might have to stick to the 1 watt green as my parents dont let me own lasers above 1 watt now Thanks for your detailed post! +1 from me

green lasers rock said:

Yes precisely. When I talk about beam visibility I mean two laser compared in identical conditions. For example a typical night outside. As you mentioned light in the blue wavelengths scatters more easily, thus causing the sky to appear blue. This could in turn lead to a blue laser with a much lower lumen output yielding a higher visibility than a brighter laser when the beams encounter obstacles such as minute particles suspended in the atmosphere. This makes the question of the worlds brightest laser very debatable. Also, comparing the brightness of two different colors of lasers a tricky, becuase brightness in different colors represents itself differently. I find pondering the question interesting though, as there seems to be no concrete answer. It looks like for me I might have to stick to the 1 watt green as my parents dont let me own lasers above 1 watt now Thanks for your detailed post! +1 from me

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Keep in mind brightness is human visual perception, eyesight, not laser output power. Human perception isn't logarithmic. You need 4 times the power to perceive double the brightness of the same wavelength.
A 1.5 W 520 is only going to be 15% brighter than a 1W 520nm--so little that you might not even see the difference.

people keep stating that rule of perception, but I can't convince myself it is true. Probably mainly because I don't have an lpm to compare two lasers, one with twice the apparent brightness of the other. Oh and about the googles I already have two of these: Eagle Pair® 190-540nm OD6 Slip Over Laser Safety Goggles
It is starting to seem i wont be able to afford a 1 watt 520, I might have to settle with one of those high power 532s form XPL. Thanks

green lasers rock said:

people keep stating that rule of perception, but I can't convince myself it is true. Probably mainly because I don't have an lpm to compare two lasers, one with twice the apparent brightness of the other. Oh and about the googles I already have two of these: Eagle Pair® 190-540nm OD6 Slip Over Laser Safety Goggles
It is starting to seem i wont be able to afford a 1 watt 520, I might have to settle with one of those high power 532s form XPL. Thanks

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Can confirm it first hand, 2W of 532nm isn't that much brighter than 1W of 532nm - definitely not twice as bright. I mean they are both stupidly bright, but the 2W isn't that much brighter.

green lasers rock said:

people keep stating that rule of perception, but I can't convince myself it is true. Probably mainly because I don't have an lpm to compare two lasers, one with twice the apparent brightness of the other. Oh and about the googles I already have two of these: Eagle Pair® 190-540nm OD6 Slip Over Laser Safety Goggles
It is starting to seem i wont be able to afford a 1 watt 520, I might have to settle with one of those high power 532s form XPL. Thanks

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I definitely believe it. The beams on my 85mw 520 and my 740mw 445 look almost the same, brightness wise. The dot on the 520 is probably actually brighter.

Chrisbee said:

I definitely believe it. The beams on my 85mw 520 and my 740mw 445 look almost the same, brightness wise. The dot on the 520 is probably actually brighter.

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That makes sense. Blue wavelengths scatter more easily than green, hence why the sky is blue. That explains why the beams appear the same brightness and the dots don't.

Hi,

Your best bet is a 1W 532nm (hopefully overspec) from a WL Krypton and a 10x Beam Expander. There might be someone selling one on eBay if you snatch it up in time.

Jersagfast said:

Hi,

Your best bet is a 1W 532nm (hopefully overspec) from a WL Krypton and a 10x Beam Expander. There might be someone selling one on eBay if you snatch it up in time.

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The 1.5w 532nm lasers from xpl should be brighter and much cheaper.

green lasers rock said:

The 1.5w 532nm lasers from xpl should be brighter and much cheaper.

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Hi,

Can you link me to the "XPL" lasers website? I never heard of them before. Also if you have cash, Check out Jetlasers or Laserglow.