Best Red Diodes?

[Moto154]

The hype is all over the blue, green, and violet lasers, neglecting the ol' red laser. I find the red lasers to be very amazing (the color and extremely thin beams of the single mode diodes) and I am trying to find the best diodes I could get my hands on (in terms of power, divergence, and beam specs). I've seen a few YouTube videos displaying a 4W 660nm laser.. If that is the highest-powered diode on the market, where could I get one? As of now I have only purchased diodes off of ebay.

 

[Cyparagon]

I am trying to find the best diodes I could get my hands on (in terms of power, divergence, and beam specs).

Power and beam quality are inversely proportional. You cannot have both. Chose one to go after first.

 

[Alaskan]

LPF member Styropyro was trying to sell one of those here in the BST section a few months back, listed it on ebay, but I cannot find it there now, maybe I'm not using the right search term. Unless you go to single mode red, they are all fairly high divergence compared to the other colors.

 

[Moto154]

Power and beam quality are inversely proportional. You cannot have both. Chose one to go after first.

I should have made that more clear. I meant to ask which diodes have the best beam quality and which diodes have the most power output. I put them together in my original post because I was also asking which diodes are kid of the "best of both worlds" in terms of those two aspects.

 

[Moto154]

LPF member Styropyro was trying to sell one of those here in the BST section a few months back, listed it on ebay, but I cannot find it there now, maybe I'm not using the right search term. Unless you go to single mode red, they are all fairly high divergence compared to the other colors.

Thanks for the reply

 

[Dutch67]

I'd recommend looking at the Tri-Beam MITSU G84 diode. It is a beautiful diode and you could probably use some sort of collimating lens to make it a single beam. I've seen that it is rated for 2.5W but Sanwu doesn't seem to want to push it past 1.6/1.8W. I recently built a laser using one and it has to be one of my more unique and favorite diode

I too have been looking at that 4W and I think you could PM DTR and he probably has some leads for you. When I googled it I got led to a page on his website where he had some info on them.

 

[diachi]

you could probably use some sort of collimating lens to make it a single beam.

Not going to work... Unless you're just masking the two side beams.

 

[Dutch67]

Not going to work... Unless you're just masking the two side beams.

It was just a shot in the dark. Someone had suggested it to me some time ago and I thought I'd just mention it here.

 

[trussmonkey25]

Instead of masking them, could you divert them to a full 90° and make it like the light saber in the force awakens? Put stops on them of course to make the hilt and safety. Just a thought

 

[H2Oxide]

Instead of masking them, could you divert them to a full 90° and make it like the light saber in the force awakens? Put stops on them of course to make the hilt and safety. Just a thought

Awful waste of power, but it'd certainly make for a cool handheld if done right.

Wasn't Wicked Lasers planning on making something like this?

 

[diachi]

Awful waste of power

And not very safe either... Although it'd look awesome!

 

[Alaskan]

I've been thinking of how cool it might be to put those three beams into a plano-convex cylinder lens and make a much more powerful line laser out of it.

 

[Dutch67]

I've been thinking of how cool it might be to put those three beams into a plano-convex cylinder lens and make a much more powerful line laser out of it.

This. This is what I meant Diachi. I just couldn't remember what the heck I wanted to say:crackup:

 

[Alaskan]

I've been wanting to line up a long row of diodes all shooting into a cylinder lens for awhile now, that way all of the beams increase the power into the line. It would make one hell of a signaling device in an emergency if in the mountains somewhere and stranded. Pilots in Alaska, well, all over the world, carry a small red laser with a cylinder lens in it to make a line like that as a signaling device but those are low power. This would make a high power one, likely too powerful if a dozen diodes were all lined up to produce a line with several watts of power, if too close to it.