Combining 650nm and 532nm

[Entity]

I understand that combining red and green beams will create a yellow color. What would be a bood balance? And how is the beam combination typically achieved ie what optivs are used. Eventually I would like to construct a handheld unit which combines a red and a green beam. Is this realistic or would it be too hard to align? I think it would be cool also to be able to adjust the outputs of each color with switches similar to the ones on Milos's blu ray pointers. This way you would be able to change the color.

What kind of optics could I use? Could someone send me links? I already came up with a way it might work. I will try to do a diagram and put it up. Anyways? any ideas?

Also, is there a formula to determine what color will result from combining other wavelenghts of varying colors? For example, what would it look like I I combined a 50mW 405nm with a 15mW 532nm? How about red and blue? I understand mixing light colors is not the same as say, mixing paint. Can someone explain this to me?

I just think it would be awesome to have a yellow colored laser, and this is a cheap way to do it even though it is technically not a single laser. The laser could be very bright at 100-300mW combined beam power.

 

[MarioMaster]

for general rules of thumb it's around a 1:4 ratio of green to red - you could make a yellow pointer if you wanted but you'll need a host with a good amount of space to hold a red module and a green DPSS module.
if you want good combining you'll need a dichro that reflects green and passes red or vice versa. you can also do a quick setup with just a piece of plastic/glass

example: 100mW red and 75mW green (most of green is lost)

 

[likewhat]

You can shoot both into a prism or diffraction grating at slightly different angles and they will come out the other side and be combined, it would allow you to do it in a small amount of space because they dont have to be at a large angle to each other.

 

[Amnizu]

My beamsplitter cube from Novalasers can combine beams, maybe you should check it out:

http://www.novalasers.com/NOVAstore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=6&idproduct=21

 

[Entity]

Likewhat -- What kind of prism (shape) and where exactly would the beams enter? Thanks.

 

[andy_con]

http://www.laser-man.co.uk/2006/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=6

 

[likewhat]

Just look at any picture of white light going into a prism. The red and green come out at different angles, since light is time reversible just do it backwards. That means that if you shoot red and green in at those angles they would come out the other side and be overlapped, then you end up with yellow. If you added a blue to it then you could get white.

It would be easier with a diffraction grating because you would have a lot more dispersion to work with so the lasers could be at a larger angle to each other.

Obviously there are other ways to combine the beams, I was just giving you another option. The CD case that was posted above would clearly be the cheapest as everyone has piles of them lying around. Another option is what people refer to as dichros or dichroic mirrors that pass certain colors and reflect others. There are also things called hot/cold mirrors that reflect or pass light above or below a certain frequency.

 

[Entity]

Do you think this would work? It seems like it would to me. Why is it that more people havn't made these? I love yellow/orange lasers.

 

[Amnizu]

Mostly because it's hard to find a host large enough to hold both the modules, mirrors and all the various optics you need on top of driver boards for both (if you're DIYing it) and the batteries and such, on top of being a big headache to fine-tune so you get properly-aligned beams.

 

[charleytown55il]

use a very large spot light that uses the 6 volt lantern batteries.

 

[Entity]

Hmm. Not sure I know what you mean. Could you post a link?

 

[Zom-B]

Every DVD burner (reader also?) contains a perfectly usable RED+IR dichro. They are used to bent the light from the pickup plane to the disc.

At a 45° angle, they reflect about 100% RED and IR light. My tests show that it transmits less from my 200mW laser than a dead laser diode emits. (still harmful to look at directly!) I got two such dichros an one maybe transmits 20-50% green and the other transmits 50-80% green (guessed)

A picture of the inside of an LG GSA-H55L 20x burner pickup.

sorry for my bad english. foto=photo (typo) (

 

[caleb]

zom-b, is there a green in you setup, or are you using IR to make red green. woul it work like this, use a single red ld witha ir ld.

 

[MarioMaster]

the only way you can perform frequency summing (how yellow lasers work) is if you have both frequencies in the same lasing cavity so it's not possible with two separate lasers, so you mix red and green

 

[artix]

Mostly because it's hard to find a host large enough to hold both the modules, mirrors and all the various optics you need on top of driver boards for both (if you're DIYing it) and the batteries and such, on top of being a big headache to fine-tune so you get properly-aligned beams.

YAY RADIOSHACK!    

AND LASER-WAVE!    

 

[Bionic-Badger]

It's hard enough getting them to line up on a slab of steel let alone the bendable structure of a project box.