445nm blue vs 532nm green

[Bounty]

Ive been reading around but still not 100% sure on the differences between the both. I gather that nm is the beam diameter and that the blue 445 is better than the green 532 at burning, but im unsure how what the difference between a 1W 445 and a 1W 532. Would there be a significant difference in burning power...distance the laser can emit to.

Trying to learn bit by bit...:thanks: for any info

 

[bhwollen]

nm refers to the wavelength (color) of the light that the laser emits. So 445nm is blue and 532 is green.

445nm (blue) lasers are better at burning because you can get them in higher powers.
532nm (green) lasers are brighter to the human eye, but are way more expensive to get in higher powers. 1 watt of 532 would probably cost around $900 compared to 1 watt of 445 which you can buy for about $100

 

[RA_pierce]

Ive been reading around but still not 100% sure on the differences between the both. I gather that nm is the beam diameter and that the blue 445 is better than the green 532 at burning, but im unsure how what the difference between a 1W 445 and a 1W 532. Would there be a significant difference in burning power...distance the laser can emit to.

Trying to learn bit by bit...:thanks: for any info

The "nm" is the wavelength in nanometers. The visible spectrum is measured in nanometers. 400nm is near UV and 750nm is near infrared. That is (roughly) the range of the visible spectrum 400-750nm.

445nm and 532nm are produced by different technologies.

445nm is direct diode and as a result has poor beam quality at high powers.
532nm is DPSS. DPSS lasers (if built well) have much better beam quality (lower divergence, smaller beam diameter at aperture, gaussian, circular beam). However, the beam quality of diode lasers can be corrected with additional optics at the cost of some power loss.

As far as burning goes...
1W is 1W regardless of what wavelength it is.
Burning depends mostly on power density and albedo.

The reason 1W is generally considered a "better" burner is because short wavelengths are more easily absorbed by more materials than longer wavelengths. This does not mean 1W 445nm is more powerful than 1W of 532nm. 1W is equivalent to 1W.

 

[Bounty]

Thankyou very much to you both, i always wondered why there were such huge price differences between different wavelengths. Im building a small collection of 445s thinking of expanding to get a good 532 sooner or later. Thanks again for the info helps me out a lot.

Cheers.