Bizzare white block gloes green under IR light

[Crazlaser]

Hey guys, today I received my 980nm laser from laserbtb. I just realized it came with a white block of ceramic type material. Out of curiousity I shined the laser at it and it glows bright green where the dot is. Almost somewhere I'd say around 520-540nm light. Can someone explain what this small white block is? It's about 7cm long, 2.5cm wide and 2mm thick. I'm very confused. :thinking:

 

[Sta]

That is probably an IR detector card. It works like a glow-in-the-dark object, but it only expends its energy when hit by infrared light.

 

[ElectricPlasma]

I've never messed with IR but maybe it's a tool to help you focus the laser, I dunno. Sounds cool though, got any pictures?

 

[diachi]

That is probably an IR detector card. It works like a glow-in-the-dark object, but it only expends its energy when hit by infrared light.

That's exactly what it is, maybe not a card in this case, but that's what it is. :yh:

And yes, @ElectricPlasma, this sort of thing is often used for fining the focal point of a beam, or other alignment tasks.

 

[Benm]

It is a detector material, and glows green when stimulated by IR light.

It does not do so by converting the wavelength up though, you should think of it like regular glow in the dark material that only works when exposed to IR light.

This means that it will stop working after some time and needs to be recharged by exposure to visible light. I have no idea on how long a block like that would keep working without recharging, but don't worry if it stops emitting light, it's probably just been discharged and your laser is still emitting IR!