Diffraction Optical Element - from Reddit & Material Sample Shop

[ElectricPlasma]

Thanks to a thread that Rokakku made couple weeks ago (http://laserpointerforums.com/f48/d...king-cool-patterns-through-plastic-97303.html) I found this item and found it really interesting. They online store that sells these DOEs claimed that they were out of stock but, the shipping was actually a hell of a lot faster than I would've expected, especially being from Denmark. Copenhagen to Toronto in two weeks isn't bad for over seas + out of stock! I must say, I wasn't even expecting it to come in.

(Thanks to Canada Post, a DTR module and this got delivered to someone else's address. I'll be sure to have a word with CP...)

I noticed that this diffraction element that lower power lasers work quite nicely, rather than higher power e.g. class IV. It's just too much light scattered all over the place, and a bit of strain on the eyes. For all the images I'm showing, I used a 303.

Here's what it came in (I ordered two, both of which are in the bag attached via a chain):

I believe it's a plastic polymer, it's also barely visible unless under a black or darker surface.

Here it is in action! With help from the laser tripod to hold the 303:

Here's an attempt at a .gif, looks like the frames and frame rate were rather... unsuccessful but I tried to save a good chunk of what I could. The spinning globe animation really is quite interesting:

Stock .gifv:
https://i.imgur.com/hHFz9Eh.gifv

Buy it here: https://www.materialsampleshop.com/products/diffractive-optical-element

-E.P.

 

[Ezcal]

Awesome!
I remember seeing this, but had forgotten about it until now. Very cool to see it's for sale somewhere.

Now the question is, how can we make our own, with more interesting designs? Or somehow useful, they mention making a gameboard using this process on that page...