DIY green laser?

ok so from my little experience with green lasers it seems that they are just made up of an IR diode shining through "some" kind of crystal.

can't i just purchase these crystals somewhere and make my own green laser?

assuming i can, who sells them? and what do they go for?

you can get them on eBay , you want to search for YVO4 and KTP or Vanadate and KTP .

Building a DIY green is tricky business, and requires, lots of knowledge, lots of reading and learning, lots of patience, and some money too.

There are a few members here who have built DIY greens, the first who springs to mind is wannaburn, if you contact him he can probably help you some.

Use a hybrid crystal like these: http://casix.com/product/prod_opt_laser_dpm.html Hybrid crystals integrate crystals and optics into one very easy to use package. CASIXs hybrid high-power DPMs are only good up to about 150mW of output, although they are only rated to 60mW. This is by far the simplest way to make a homebrew green system. All you need is a pump diode, a lens to focus it, the DPM, and a collimating assembly (output lens). (This is a bit simplified, and it wouldn't hurt to include some TECs and a mount for the crystals. the crystals have to be mounted on some form of heatsink to draw away the heat generated by the lasing process.)