Dr.Laser
0
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2008
- Messages
- 802
- Points
- 43
A true yellow laser has always been on my want list alongside with cyan laser, luckily I managed to score the later but the former is almost impossible for a hobbyist. When 561nm became available, I was pretty excited thinking it will be yellow until I got one. It's too green and it only looks yellow in limited situations.
The next available wavelength in the spectrum is 589nm. It's too golden to be yellow yet many people call it yellow which surprises me.
According to wavelength tools, the range of 576nm-583nm will yield banana yellow with 580nm being the yellowest.
I've never heard of commercially available lasers at 580nm but the very next available yellow wavelength is 577nm. It is produced by Coherent in OPSL form with very high powers in bulky units with prices of at least $20k. Not the average laser of LPF member.
CNI added 577nm to their line almost a year ago but I never bothered to ask for a portable version because I know the answer will be simply no. I asked before for 458nm, 480nm , 491nm, 501nm, 607nm and the answer has always been the same so it is unlikely they are going to put their so new wavelength into a pointer.
Recently CNI built the sharp 502nm for me and I decided that it wont hurt to ask about 577nm. Three days later and still no word, I told myself it is such a ridiculous idea that they ignored me.
The next morning an email from CNI telling me that they have been testing the module and they can put it into GLP. I'm in bed and barely awake so I had to read that email few times to fully digest it. My best hope was a PGL and they are offering me a GLP ? This must be a dream !
I had to negotioate the price since it was ludicrous. The new price is still high but this is one time opprtunity and I had to take it.
CNI claims DPSS process which makes it the first 577nm DPSS in the market but what is the process they are using ?
I did some research into this and spent few hours looking for an answer, I found three options of producing 577nm in DPSS process.
1) Sum Frequency Generation of 1030nm and 1319nm, complicated setup and require 2 different pump diodes. Also reported to produce limited power of tens of milliwats.
2) Frequency doubling of 1154nm from Yb doped fiber, unlikely given that whole thing can fit a GLP.
3) Dy3+ doped crystal pumped by UV/Blue diode, different sources report that Dy doped crystals emit yellow lines at 575-580nm depneding on the crystal compostion when excited by UV/Blue light. The center of excitation bands are 325, 352, 366, 389, 427, 453 and 474 nm.
Also CNI states a tolerance of ±2nm on the specsheet which agrees with reported lasing lines from literature.
So lets get into the review :drool:
CNI received my payment on 2nd of August , shipped by DHL on the 10th and arrived on the 13th, 2 days earlier than the ETA :wave: However CNI declared the real value on the airway bill so I paid $120 on customs duties. :cryyy:
The usual cardboard box.
All GLPs come with this sticker showing the wavelength and serial number
Also CNI ships the laser with ND filter installed on the aperture as a precaution to make their lasers <1mW just in case any legal issue raises with customs, they include extra aperture cap without ND filter.
This one takes only 1xCR2 battery
Yellow photons !
The color is exactly what I was expecting, just pure yellow with no tint of green or orange.
This one rated at 5mW, it starts at 5-7mW and decreases to 1-2mW. It falls below 1mW if recommended duty cycle is exceeded. The output is pulsed just like their 473nm and 589nm GLPs.
This LPM graph is for a cold start
And this one after few minutes cool down
This laser definitely like to operate in cold environment. The body gets fairly warm after 1 minute.
The beam quality on this is outstanding, I can safely say it has the tightest beam I have ever seen on a laser with <1mm at aperture and around 23mm at 25m. Absolutely clean circular dot. Keep in mind this GLP has the same assembly as the lab units.
This video shows the dot at 25m
Can't take decent beam shots because the output drops quickly before I can find the perfect settings.
All pictures are directly from my Canon 600D, no color corrections are done unless mentioned .
Next to 589nm, the 577nm is a little bit shaky here.
561nm , 577nm, 589nm
Note these 2 pictures are partailly color corrected to show the 561nm correctly because the camera picks it too green.
Reflections on glass sphere
561nm (color corrected)
577nm
589nm
The next available wavelength in the spectrum is 589nm. It's too golden to be yellow yet many people call it yellow which surprises me.
According to wavelength tools, the range of 576nm-583nm will yield banana yellow with 580nm being the yellowest.
I've never heard of commercially available lasers at 580nm but the very next available yellow wavelength is 577nm. It is produced by Coherent in OPSL form with very high powers in bulky units with prices of at least $20k. Not the average laser of LPF member.
CNI added 577nm to their line almost a year ago but I never bothered to ask for a portable version because I know the answer will be simply no. I asked before for 458nm, 480nm , 491nm, 501nm, 607nm and the answer has always been the same so it is unlikely they are going to put their so new wavelength into a pointer.
Recently CNI built the sharp 502nm for me and I decided that it wont hurt to ask about 577nm. Three days later and still no word, I told myself it is such a ridiculous idea that they ignored me.
The next morning an email from CNI telling me that they have been testing the module and they can put it into GLP. I'm in bed and barely awake so I had to read that email few times to fully digest it. My best hope was a PGL and they are offering me a GLP ? This must be a dream !
I had to negotioate the price since it was ludicrous. The new price is still high but this is one time opprtunity and I had to take it.
CNI claims DPSS process which makes it the first 577nm DPSS in the market but what is the process they are using ?
I did some research into this and spent few hours looking for an answer, I found three options of producing 577nm in DPSS process.
1) Sum Frequency Generation of 1030nm and 1319nm, complicated setup and require 2 different pump diodes. Also reported to produce limited power of tens of milliwats.
2) Frequency doubling of 1154nm from Yb doped fiber, unlikely given that whole thing can fit a GLP.
3) Dy3+ doped crystal pumped by UV/Blue diode, different sources report that Dy doped crystals emit yellow lines at 575-580nm depneding on the crystal compostion when excited by UV/Blue light. The center of excitation bands are 325, 352, 366, 389, 427, 453 and 474 nm.
Also CNI states a tolerance of ±2nm on the specsheet which agrees with reported lasing lines from literature.
So lets get into the review :drool:
CNI received my payment on 2nd of August , shipped by DHL on the 10th and arrived on the 13th, 2 days earlier than the ETA :wave: However CNI declared the real value on the airway bill so I paid $120 on customs duties. :cryyy:
The usual cardboard box.
All GLPs come with this sticker showing the wavelength and serial number
Also CNI ships the laser with ND filter installed on the aperture as a precaution to make their lasers <1mW just in case any legal issue raises with customs, they include extra aperture cap without ND filter.
This one takes only 1xCR2 battery
Yellow photons !
The color is exactly what I was expecting, just pure yellow with no tint of green or orange.
This one rated at 5mW, it starts at 5-7mW and decreases to 1-2mW. It falls below 1mW if recommended duty cycle is exceeded. The output is pulsed just like their 473nm and 589nm GLPs.
This LPM graph is for a cold start
And this one after few minutes cool down
This laser definitely like to operate in cold environment. The body gets fairly warm after 1 minute.
The beam quality on this is outstanding, I can safely say it has the tightest beam I have ever seen on a laser with <1mm at aperture and around 23mm at 25m. Absolutely clean circular dot. Keep in mind this GLP has the same assembly as the lab units.
This video shows the dot at 25m
Can't take decent beam shots because the output drops quickly before I can find the perfect settings.
All pictures are directly from my Canon 600D, no color corrections are done unless mentioned .
Next to 589nm, the 577nm is a little bit shaky here.
561nm , 577nm, 589nm
Note these 2 pictures are partailly color corrected to show the 561nm correctly because the camera picks it too green.
Reflections on glass sphere
561nm (color corrected)
577nm
589nm
Last edited:
how many thousands did this thing cost you??
