beam specs of 1,064 nm IR lasers

[ixfd64]

I've noticed that the specs of 1,064 nm lasers seem to be better than that of 808 nm or 980 nm ones. For example, Techlasers lists its 808 nm and 980 nm lasers as having a divergence of at least 5 mrad, while its 1,064 nm lasers have a nice 1.5 mrad. I'm assuming that the 808 nm and 980 nm lasers use multi-mode diodes. Of course, since Techlasers is full of BS, I doubt that the specs of their 1,064 nm lasers are that good, but do 1,064 nm lasers have better specs in general?

 

[pseudonomen137]

Yes, 1064nm lasers are more expensive and considerably better beam specs. 808nm and 980nm units are normally multi-mode diodes. 1064nm is DPSS - just Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4 without the doubler to get it to 532nm. Therefore the beam specs get very close to the theoretical perfect beam. The combined beam specs (mm*mRad), aka. "brightness" of a 1064nm units should be about twice as bad as that of a 532nm DPSS greenie (because brightness is inversely proprotional to wavelength)

 

[Cyparagon]

They CAN have beam specs as nice as greens. Whether Techlasers makes them that way is up for debate.

 

[pseudonomen137]

They CAN have beam specs as nice as greens. Whether Techlasers makes them that way is up for debate.

Only if the green isn't well made. Green DPSS is usually <1.2 M^2. Since 1064nm has double the wavelength of 532nm, its diffraction limited beam specs are twice as bad and even if you had a perfect 1.0 M^2 beam of 1064nm, it would only compare to a 2.0 M^2 beam of a 532nm.