Prices of different colors of lasers

I just found out about lasers and I've looked up price on many sites. I was just wondering why some color lasers can be so expensive like a yellow laser and how some lasers of a certain power can be quite cheap relative to other colors of the same power such as a high-powered blue.

HowAreYouToday said:

I just found out about lasers and I've looked up price on many sites. I was just wondering why some color lasers can be so expensive like a yellow laser and how some lasers of a certain power can be quite cheap relative to other colors of the same power such as a high-powered blue.

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yellows have complex DPSS crystals and much more expensive components. its just like that and will likely remain that way the good news is the 515nm greens are coming down in price :yh:

Not all diodes are alike. Some colors are made by combining 2 diodes into 1 beam. White actually combines 3 different colors, pretty hard to achieve.

TacoHerder said:

Not all diodes are alike. Some colors are made by combining 2 diodes into 1 beam, like yellow.

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i remember reading a tutorial on making a yellow pointer out of a green, red pointer from DX

AnthoT said:

i remember reading a tutorial on making a yellow pointer out of a green, red pointer from DX

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Ya, sorry my editing deleted some of my comment :thinking: I always see this on ebay for doing just that
Point Source Laser Optics Beam Combiner Splitter | eBay

Looks like a decent price, not compact though.

TacoHerder said:

Ya, sorry my editing deleted some of my comment :thinking: I always see this on ebay for doing just that
Point Source Laser Optics Beam Combiner Splitter | eBay

Looks like a decent price, not compact though.

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ya it seems like a good price

AnthoT said:

the good news is the 515nm greens are coming down in price :yh:

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It will be more likely 520+nm.

that's good tho because argon does 514 - new wave length:wave:

Seems nobody really went in-depth.

*ahem*

There are many kinds of lasers, the ones you may know are the red lasers found in pet toys and ones at staples and etc. These are diode lasers. They operate anywhere between 630 and 670nm (Different diodes, temp, battery life, and individual manufacture errors change the wavelength). These are mass produced beyond what you may imagine, and being there is a high supply, the price stays low. Same can be said for 405nm (purple) lasers. They're in many blu-ray players and are also mass produced. 445nm (indigo-royal blue) lasers are mass produced and their prices are slowly declining.

Green lasers are a different story - common 532nm green lasers are called DPSS lasers, in short it's a powerful infrared diode sending light into a crystal set that changes the wavelength to green (if you would like more details just ask). These lasers are only used for pointing and a few outside applications such as alignment or for dye lasers. These are relatively easy to produce, for the fact that the crystal set "likes" to make 532nm light.
Soon, there will be green diodes available cheaply, at a slightly lower wavelength, however still green.

Light blue [DPSS] 473nm lasers work much like green DPSS lasers, however it requires different coatings and more precise alignment and active cooling to keep it working correctly. This drives the power down lower because it's not so efficient, and it drives the cost up due to the difficulty of how it all works.

589nm and 593.5nm (yellow) lasers are also considered DPSS, but they're also something else called "SFG". (once again, ask if you want more info). Basically they're coated specially for the lasers and require even more precision than 473nm does. More precision = more $$, more inefficient = less power.

Now, new to the market, are two other kinds. One is called "OPSL", which I unfortunately have little knowledge of myself, you probably won't see these hitting the markets anytime soon. Same with the other kind, it's similar to DPSS, however it does not use an infrared laser to start, instead it uses a relatively new crystal that changes 445nm into exotic colors, one being 607nm (orange). These cost around $2000 new, there aren't any used out there for grabs.

A kind I didn't mention are gas lasers, these are all over the board, and typically it's a hit or miss buying these. Either it's a cheap gem, a cheap piece of junk, an expensive gem, or an expensive piece of junk.

I for one would love more info on SFG lasers, Zraffle... I've always thought yellow were just standard DPSS.

Sorry it took so long for a reply here, it evaded my subscribed threads for some reason.

Well, I'll have to refresh a bit on standard DPSS to make some sense out of it. Basically (in our "common" yellow lasers) these work like DPSS lasers. These lasers use our same favorite crystals: Nd:YAG and LBO/KTP. In our greenies and 473's, the Nd:YAG is coated so only certain laser lines come out (specific wavelengths of light). These lines then pass through into the crystal and out comes your visible laser. For SFG, the principles are the same. In the more efficient 589nm, Nd:YAG is coated for two lines instead of one. So instead of only letting 1064nm pass through, it lets 1064nm and 1319nm pass through. These two wavelengths then have to be focused together tightly to be sent into the LBO/KTP as one beam (I can't remember what SFG uses, something makes me think LBO). Technically, every DPSS laser can be considered a SFG of the same line. The formula for SFG lasers is 1/((1/WL1)+(1/WL2)). So, 1/((1/1064)+(1/1319) = 588.9 (rounds to 589). 593.5 uses 1064nm and 1342nm. Reason 593.5nm is less common and less stable is because 1342nm is a very weak and unstable line Nd:YAG can be forced to produce.

SFG lasers don't always use fancy coatings on one crystal, sometimes you need to combine the beams from different wavelengths. This essentially can create any color you possibly can need on a hobbyist level... if anyone here ever figures out the alignment, that person could easily have a nice orange by combining the 1319nm line and the 1122nm line of nd:YAG, I'm pretty sure there's no coating for both, but there are coatings individually.

Being I'm typing this minutes before I pass out it may not be the "clearest" explanation I've made... if there's any other questions ask and I'll watch for it the next few days.