808nm and 532nm prices

[Viruzzz]

The normal 532 green lasers that you can get very cheaply are all DPSS lasers, right? So they have a 808nm laser as the actual source and then modulate the light with two crystals.

But there doesn't seem to be any 808 lasers available in a price range anywhere near the cheap green ones, which is surprising to me if every 532nm laser is actually an 808nm laser underneath.

I can understand why the 532 would be more popular, don't get me wrong, it's right near the highest visibility wavelengths and the 808 would be nearly invisible, there's definitely a reason why a green one would be more desired, but it still surprises me that there seemingly aren't any 808 laser pointers at all unless you go up to the $100+ range.

is there something I'm missing?

 

[RA_pierce]

I think you answered your own question. If someone wants a "cool laser" for $10, why would they want it to be invisible?
Building an 808 nm laser pointer is trivial and even very powerful 808 nm diodes can be purchased very inexpensively, if that's something you're interested in. I wouldn't recommend it, though, as it's quite boring and dangerous without proper safety precautions.

 

[Encap]

Additionally there are dozens of 808nm laser pointers less than $100 available on eBay and Amazon if you bother to look. Most of them $20 and up.

Supply and demand explains why. Not many want an invisible and dangerous to eyesight laser pointer so why offer them very widely and aggressively. Not much use for them except illumination for IR camera photos.

 

[Viruzzz]

I think you answered your own question. If someone wants a "cool laser" for $10, why would they want it to be invisible?
Building an 808 nm laser pointer is trivial and even very powerful 808 nm diodes can be purchased very inexpensively, if that's something you're interested in. I wouldn't recommend it, though, as it's quite boring and dangerous without proper safety precautions.

Well I can only give my own reason for being interested, which is that an 808nm laser would be more powerful for the same amount of power/heat generation because it doesn't have the losses in the wavelength conversion steps. That is at least my assumption if I've understood the physics correctly.

I'm going to build a laser on my own at some point, but my first one isn't going to be invisible. I do have glasses that cover 808 so my eyes wouldn't be in danger, but not being able to easily tell that the laser is on before it has set something on fire doesn't sound like a great idea for the first time building one.

Additionally there are dozens of 808nm laser pointers less than $100 available on eBay and Amazon if you bother to look. Most of them $20 and up.

Supply and demand explains why. Not many want an invisible and dangerous to eyesight laser pointer so why offer them very widely and aggressively. Not much use for them except illumination for IR camera photos.

I don't Look much at ebay because of VAT and shipping, having to pay a $20 fee for importing plus 25% VAT of the product and shipping cost quickly hikes up the cost and makes it much less worth it. a product price of ~$40 from a US seller turns into ~$100 with import fees and VAT. I've tried to filter by European sellers but the selection of almost anything is very very small compared to US/Chinese sellers.

 

[Encap]

You are correct about the 808nm pump diode being higher output than the resulting 532nm output however there is almost no market/demand for 808nm making them undesirable to bother with or offer so... If you really have a use for or want an 808nm for reasons unknown as RA said, build one.

The higher quality and cost 532nm pointers have a built IR filter to eliminate the IR and pass only 532nm. The low cost 532nm pointers also emit IR and require an end user to buy a filter to eliminate the IR in 532nm pointers . Lasers are an expensive hobby relatively. No way around it.

Have a look at what Roithner, Austria offers. Laser pointers of all wavelengths available there.
https://www.roithner-laser.com/laser_pointers.html

FYI re: setting things on fire
A laser beam has no temperature - there is no inherent "temperature" to a laser beam. Heat is the random motion of matter particles (atomic or molecular particles). A laser beam itself is not made of matter but of photons, which have no mass, thus a laser beam can have no temperature. "Heat" is caused by a laser beams energy being absorbed by a materials surface and turning light energy into heat energy.
For burning or setting on fire you would be many times much better off with a box of kitchen matches than most any lasers.

 

[atomd]

You can't call it laser POINTER if it can't point as it's invisible. There's really good reason there're no 808nm laser pointers for sale. Because they're perfect way to hurt someone and if you know enough to handle one you also know that you can build it in <1h.

RE temperature:
There are also another temperature definitions. One is using spectrum to fit particle energy distribution. Due to population inversion in lasers, they technically have negative temperature. Another definition compares energy density to black body, which for typical laser pointers gives a dozen thousand K, going into millions for diffraction limited DPSS.

 

[Viruzzz]

I am aware of how light works, when I mentioned power/heat i meant the waste heat generated by the electronics for a given light output

 

[sunnyprot]

The laser pointers you're referring to typically use an 808nm infrared laser diode as the pump source. This is invisible to the human eye.