Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

LPF Donation via Stripe | LPF Donation - Other Methods

Links below open in new window

ArcticMyst Security by Avery

What all colors do lasers come in?

Pyramid

New member
Joined
Feb 11, 2020
Messages
15
Points
3
Other than Red, Green, Blue, and Violet. Are there other colors that lasers can come in?
 





Pyramid

New member
Joined
Feb 11, 2020
Messages
15
Points
3
Much appreciated! So as I understand if I were to get a 200mW 405nm Laser Pointer, the Beam would be clearly visible at Night, correct? mW will determine the visibility of the beam?
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
12,031
Points
113
What he said, it is hard enough to see 405 nm at just under 1 watt for me, very faint, but being faint at that short wavelength is misleading, can blind you in one eye instantly, a little longer for two eyes. The sensitivity of our eyes at 405 nm violet are roughly about 1 percent as much as they are for 520-532 nm green, thus why misleading.
 

CurtisOliver

0
LPF Site Supporter
Joined
Jun 12, 2015
Messages
7,609
Points
113
Lasers can come in every monochromatic wavelength (colour) possible and are limited by technology. As stated a 405nm is not a bright laser. Being at the edge of what we consider to be visible it will naturally look dim. Rayleigh scattering allows the beam to be more visible despite its luminous efficacy. But compare it to an equivalent power 445nm and you'll notice a huge difference. 405nm is sometimes mistaken for being bright due to the fluorescence it can induce in certain objects.
ArcticDude already referenced my site which I put together to answer such questions. Take a look at the luminous efficacy stats. Scotopic is low light intensity conditions and Photopic is high intensity light conditions. Our eyes become more sensitive to different wavelength peaks as light levels fluctuate. 555nm is the brightest wavelength to view in direct sunlight and 507nm the brightest wavelength to view under complete darkness. Red wavelengths appear brighter during daylight hours and blue wavelengths appear brighter during nighttime hours.
 
Joined
Sep 20, 2013
Messages
17,388
Points
113
Yeah, the visible spectrum runs from 400nm up to 700 nm. In between these two points are all the yellows, teal, orange, blues in most every color range, but being monochromatic they can't be combinations of wavelengths like purple. No one person's perceived color for a wavelength can be said to be a certain color as everyone perceives these wavelengths differently.
 

Encap

0
Joined
May 14, 2011
Messages
6,123
Points
113
Other than Red, Green, Blue, and Violet. Are there other colors that lasers can come in?
You really need to study up on/get an educatipn about what exists in the real world re: lasers.
Lasers do not behave/function the way you imagine they function.
You are confusing laser propertites and characteristics with human visual system and perception properties, yours in particualar---apples and oranges different.

Lasers do not come in "colors".
All lasers are emit wavelengths of photon energy, not colors.
Color is not a physical property; it is merely the brain’s interpretation of different wavelengths of light.
Color names are words/symbols for that brain activity.
Brightness is also a human visual system function and based on biological process sensitivity to the energy of different wavelengths.

Lasers have output energy/power for a given wavelength expressed milliwatts or watts.

You have beam visibility wrong also --whatever you come up with is wrong as you are missing fundamentally why a "beam " is visible at all. You are mixing apples and oranges, your perception with the physical reality of what lasers are and do, leaving out the fundamental realities of lasers independent of any person observing their environment visually.
Laser beam visibility is not a matter of output power or wavelength.
A "laser beam" is invisible in a vacuum regardless of wavelength or power/energy.
You never actually see the laser beam. What you see is the reflections from particles in the air called aerosols having a diameter significantly less than the wavelength of the light. That causes a beam to become visible. The more of these minute particles there are in the air the more visible" brighter" "the beam" appears to be.
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 a laser, than people standing some distance to the side.

Yeah, the visible spectrum runs from 400nm up to 700 nm. In between these two points are all the yellows, teal, orange, blues in most every color range, but being monochromatic they can't be combinations of wavelengths like purple. No one person's perceived color for a wavelength can be said to be a certain color as everyone perceives these wavelengths differently.

Exactly(y)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
10,662
Points
113
The wavelength ( colors is not the correct term) chart has a huge number of wavelenghts-- but matching actual diodes is much shorter.

IF you have not already--SUBSCRIBE to Photonic Specrtra (trade mag for the thousands of Photonics fields.)
iirc once every 2 years the mag come with a very nice large chart.. the mag is free as well as the chart--you can buy the paper version for ~$20 ...the laminated version costs much more. For your 'field' you can put 'Laser Safety' a topic we all need and use. IIRC PS wrote that the industry will be doing 85 billion$ in biz this year. and its growing very fast.




--unsure of your choice of career ? -- the monster size directory has every company and is cross referenced- you can find companies by location or by what they do.. it is as big as any fonebook I have every seen. lots of other useful info as well.
I am willing to help anyone wanting to know more about photonics & companies local to them--looks like everybody is hiring or WAS.

In some of SpyroPyro's YTUBE vids you will see the chart on his shop wall..

P.S. asks us to update to keep getting the mag--once every two or 3 years.
PS has been around IIRC 26years. I have been getting it for > 5 years
 
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
10,662
Points
113
^^ not really-- many times more wavelengths than diodes for them-- MYB 10X or more.
'Wavelength Jockies' try to own every wavelength that they can.
Some that are out there are only .5 nm apart - like 635 and 635.5 ( or close to that)
as posted these are wavelengths not colors.. sorry if that sounds picky.
JUST like mW --mw- Mw etc are NOT the same--- which is more important than colors vs wavelength.

BTW this ^^ may be on the final (test) exam----jk
hak
 




Top