Future of lasers

[dressur4]

I have been thinking about the future of lasers. What new lasers do you think will be coming out in the next 10 20 years? I am hoping it won't be diode only I am hoping that gas lasers and DPSS lasers will still be made. I have noticed many new colors being made with diodes . I am not much into direct diode lasers but getting to like them, But I am wondering if they will come out with new technologies more efficient lasers I would like to know your opinions. It is amazing what you can buy now for what a metrologic HENE used to cost.

 

[paul1598419]

Funny you should mention it, but I have a Metrologic He-Ne laser. Direct diodes can be made to have the linewidth of a gas laser by carefully controlling its temperature and diffraction tuning the laser to a single wavelength. This has been done a lot with single mode laser diodes.

 

[dressur4]

Yes I love my Metrologic it was the laser I saw in my middle school that got me hooked to wanting one. I have another with a bad power supply with the metal and ceramic tube. I was thinking of installing a 200mw 532 laser I have it would fit. would be neat but I may try to find out why the supply don't work and fix it. What amazes me is, the color choices I am seeing lately I remember when the blu ray came out and was so excited when I saw a red pointer at 670 from Radio Shack came out. before DVDs and a lack of knowledge that I have now and not then, I thought diode lasers were infrared. Now all colors. I finally got my hands on a 2 watt white laser. The future of lasers to me is exciting

 

[Encap]

I finally got my hands on a 2 watt white laser.

Meaning?

"Twenty years ago, for example, many scientists spent more time maintaining and repairing their laboratory's argon ion and dye lasers than they did conducting actual experiments." From 2010 article, Laser Innovation: Why the Next 50 Years Look Even Brighter, see: http://laserfest.org/lasers/future.cfm

Progress almost never happens in a vacuum ---- future of available lasers will be funding money driven by real world applications/uses and potential market for same other than 1 off specialty purpose and research lasers.

 

[dressur4]

Meaning?

meaning what???????? I am happy I finally got a 2 watt white laser and I hope the FUTURE includes more and more white laser technology and more affordability I also meant that it is amazing that 20 years ago a white laser was like 50,000 or more and today they are under a grand. I also have high hopes for the future of lasers

 

[Encap]

meaning what???????? I am happy I finally got a 2 watt white laser and I hope the FUTURE includes more and more white laser technology and more affordability I also meant that it is amazing that 20 years ago a white laser was like 50,000 or more and today they are under a grand. I also have high hopes for the future of lasers

What I meant was there are no "white" lasers nor a "white" wavelength, so was asking what you meant?

Today you can get a 300mw RGB laser that creates the illusion of white for $55.20 and that is something never envisioned 20 years ago for sure---progress?
https://www.laserlands.net/diode-laser-module/rgb-combined-white-laser-module/11010006.html

 

[Benm]

Gas and solid state lasers will probably be around for a long time, at least for specific applications.

Diodes may cover the entire visible spectrum soon enough (waiting on yellow?), but wavelength is only one aspect.

If you need a very precise bandwidth, or high pulse power, or anything like that, laser diodes cannot provide it. Surely you can build a 1 watt continous laser diode, but what if you needed an -average- of 1 watt, in the form of a megawatt pulse during 1 microsecond, each second? No way diodes can deliver that.

A different matter is what lasers will be available to the enthousiasts, and it may look a bit bleek in that department. Yes we are getting more and more nice direct diode wavelength, but also losing beam quality. Lasers for things like projectors and such usually are multimode.

The most affordable single mode diodes with some serious power came out of optical writing drives, dvd for red, bluray for 405 nm.

I think optical storage media in the form of discs will be gone from the consumer market in 10 years or so, as well as any newly made devices to write or even read them. The problem is that the largest capacity rewriteable bluray discs available is only 50 GB, and those discs cost over $10 each. SD cards are about twice as expensive per GB right now, but given all their other advantages (not the least being the size of a stamp instead of that of a frisbee) makes consumer use of optical disks already a thing of the past.

And yeah, if you purely look at the cost to store a terabyte of data, harddrives and ssd's are cheaper when you want a terabyte or more regardless... and still not as bulky as a bluray disc in it's jewel case.

One chance of high power single mode diodes staying available in consumer electronics would be the development of things like holographic optical storage, where you can store a large amount of data in a small volume.

Then again we may seem some complete novel application that yields us products to rip great lasers out off...

 

[RedCowboy]

I found this earlier, seems like diode and fiber are what's going forward as per scientific now, commercial is diode, industrial is diode pumped active fiber and military is diode pumped active fiber as the 2 are joined at the hip, I don't know of any gas lasers being produced in quantity for anything ATM, I know fiber amplifiers will likely replace the boxes of doped glass plates to amplify a seed laser such was used at the national ignition facility, if it was built today I expect it would be fiber, but I could be wrong....fire away

Correction, commercial is diode, industrial is active fiber.....by commercial I mean lightshows, data projectors ect...

https://www.laserfocusworld.com/art...sources-fiber-lasers-tune-to-the-visible.html

 

[dressur4]

Meaning?

"Twenty years ago, for example, many scientists spent more time maintaining and repairing their laboratory's argon ion and dye lasers than they did conducting actual experiments."

From 2010 article, Laser Innovation: Why the Next 50 Years Look Even Brighter, see: LaserFest | Laser Innovation: Why the Next 50 Years Look Even Brighter

Progress almost never happens in a vacuum ---- future of available lasers will be funding money driven--real world applications/uses and potential market for same other than 1 off specialty purpose and research lasers.

That is so strange. When I saw your message the first time, All I saw was meaning? then the rest of your message came up.. I agree that yes the ion lasers are a pain power hungry EXPENSIVE and short lived. I love the new DPSS lasers and I always will love any ND YAG or solid state laser. but I have two working argons and I have them at my friend's factory as one runs on 480 and its a pain to use. the other is 208 3 phase as well and I can't run them here at the house. I have a huge 532 nm flashlamp pumped yag I ordered the power supply Q switch driver and chiller unit for it. but the 2 watt RGB laser I mentiond I got it today and love it. . thanks for the link I will read it Thank you again Tom

 

[dressur4]

What I meant was there are no "white" lasers nor a "white" wavelength, so was asking what you meant?

Today you can get a 300mw RGB laser that creates the illusion of white for $55.20 and that is something never envisioned 20 years ago for sure---progress?
https://www.laserlands.net/diode-laser-module/rgb-combined-white-laser-module/11010006.html

That laser you mentioned from Laserland is on it's way be here next week or so. I got the 2000 MW laser today heavy and BRIGHT. yes I should have stated RGB I stand corrected

 

[dressur4]

Gas and solid state lasers will probably be around for a long time, at least for specific applications.

Diodes may cover the entire visible spectrum soon enough (waiting on yellow?), but wavelength is only one aspect.

If you need a very precise bandwidth, or high pulse power, or anything like that, laser diodes cannot provide it. Surely you can build a 1 watt continous laser diode, but what if you needed an -average- of 1 watt, in the form of a megawatt pulse during 1 microsecond, each second? No way diodes can deliver that.

A different matter is what lasers will be available to the enthousiasts, and it may look a bit bleek in that department. Yes we are getting more and more nice direct diode wavelength, but also losing beam quality. Lasers for things like projectors and such usually are multimode.

The most affordable single mode diodes with some serious power came out of optical writing drives, dvd for red, bluray for 405 nm.

I think optical storage media in the form of discs will be gone from the consumer market in 10 years or so, as well as any newly made devices to write or even read them. The problem is that the largest capacity rewriteable bluray discs available is only 50 GB, and those discs cost over $10 each. SD cards are about twice as expensive per GB right now, but given all their other advantages (not the least being the size of a stamp instead of that of a frisbee) makes consumer use of optical disks already a thing of the past.

And yeah, if you purely look at the cost to store a terabyte of data, harddrives and ssd's are cheaper when you want a terabyte or more regardless... and still not as bulky as a bluray disc in it's jewel case.

One chance of high power single mode diodes staying available in consumer electronics would be the development of things like holographic optical storage, where you can store a large amount of data in a small volume.

Then again we may seem some complete novel application that yields us products to rip great lasers out off... [/QUOTE

Yes I agree on the beam quality I bought a Qisk 2 watt 450 NM unit small and burns through brown paper but the beam sucks it's' rectangular and not very nice and high divergence. kinda disappointing but if you want to burn stuff 12 inches or closer . it's the laser for you. but the beam is horrid

 

[RedCowboy]

That article mentions telecom and reminded me of many years ago, about 35 years ago when ATnT put out a presentation about fiber optics being the future at an event I saw when I was 15 years old, I grasped the concept of bandwidth but thought it was crazy, a bunch of ultra pure glass strands, how difficult they would be to make so perfect....

----edit----

Special purpose scientific could be anything, but thinking mainstream and what we can gain access to ......sigh......there could be an outright prohibition, just cracking open your old cell phone to play with it's holo projector may send an alert to the authorities, who knows....
Before you say you'll remove the battery, there will be a permanent ultra cap inside, a lifetime tiny battery to scream for help, and if you get caught taking them apart in a signal blocking enclosure then you're in big trouble, if we lose freedom we will end up losing all freedom, and the fight is on.

 

[Encap]

That is so strange. When I saw your message the first time, All I saw was meaning? then the rest of your message came up.. I agree that yes the ion lasers are a pain power hungry EXPENSIVE and short lived. I love the new DPSS lasers and I always will love any ND YAG or solid state laser. but I have two working argons and I have them at my friend's factory as one runs on 480 and its a pain to use. the other is 208 3 phase as well and I can't run them here at the house. I have a huge 532 nm flashlamp pumped yag I ordered the power supply Q switch driver and chiller unit for it. but the 2 watt RGB laser I mentiond I got it today and love it. . thanks for the link I will read it Thank you again Tom

Good luck with the RGBs units--enjoy them.

Interesting video from AT &T Archives featuring the guys who got the ball rolling.

 

[paul1598419]

Without a source of power to transmit, I doubt anything will be fiddleproof. And, since once you buy something it is yours to do with as you please, as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else, I don't see the bogyman coming to take us to jail.

 

[RedCowboy]

REALLY, tell it to the farmers who cant work on their own equipment, tell it to the tuners who are told the programing in their cars ECU is intellectual property that they can't modify, it's already being pushed, you're naïve if you think it can't happen.

In the beginning it will be laws ignored and not enforced, but they will be on the books, then when ready the alphabet agencies only need to modify existing regulations, no vote and now no required comment and reflection period is needed, they can just make changes that carry the weight of law.

Quote:

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) contains 180,000 pages, Business Insider reported on June 26 2017

“On standard paper, these pages would be about sixty feet tall if stacked,” Business Insider contributor Nathan Bryant writes. “That is roughly equivalent to the height of a six-story building. If those same pages were laid end-on-end, they would be over thirty miles long,” he added.

That’s not just a problem for printers, it’s a problem for people trying to make a living in the United States.

The cost of compliance with these federal regulations is roughly $2 trillion a year, according to separate reports published by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Added to that fiscal burden is the fact that the federal government spends nearly $70 billion enforcing its own regulatory requirements.

President Donald Trump has promised to cut regulations by 75 percent. To date, the regulatory schemes built up for generations remain intact, with the Trump administration merely requesting that federal agencies to review their processes and to eliminate unnecessary regulations.


In light of the recent decision by the Supreme Court granting nearly limitless power to bureaucrats to define property rights, one is reminded of the words of Thomas Jefferson. Speaking of the accumulation of powers into one branch of the general government, the author of the Declaration of Independence wrote: "It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one."

Liberty in the United States today is not under attack from one, single identifiable despot, but from hundreds of federal agencies and commissions, each of which is permitted by the president to exercise immense legislative, executive, and judicial power.

 

[dressur4]

REALLY, tell it to the farmers who cant work on their own equipment, tell it to the tuners who are told the programing in their cars ECU is intellectual property that they can't modify, it's already being pushed, you're naïve if you think it can't happen.

In the beginning it will be laws ignored and not enforced, but they will be on the books, then when ready the alphabet agencies only need to modify existing regulations, no vote and now no required comment and reflection period is needed, they can just make changes that carry the weight of law.

Quote:

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) contains 180,000 pages, Business Insider reported on June 26 2017

“On standard paper, these pages would be about sixty feet tall if stacked,” Business Insider contributor Nathan Bryant writes. “That is roughly equivalent to the height of a six-story building. If those same pages were laid end-on-end, they would be over thirty miles long,” he added.

That’s not just a problem for printers, it’s a problem for people trying to make a living in the United States.

The cost of compliance with these federal regulations is roughly $2 trillion a year, according to separate reports published by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Added to that fiscal burden is the fact that the federal government spends nearly $70 billion enforcing its own regulatory requirements.

President Donald Trump has promised to cut regulations by 75 percent. To date, the regulatory schemes built up for generations remain intact, with the Trump administration merely requesting that federal agencies to review their processes and to eliminate unnecessary regulations.


In light of the recent decision by the Supreme Court granting nearly limitless power to bureaucrats to define property rights, one is reminded of the words of Thomas Jefferson. Speaking of the accumulation of powers into one branch of the general government, the author of the Declaration of Independence wrote: "It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one."

Liberty in the United States today is not under attack from one, single identifiable despot, but from hundreds of federal agencies and commissions, each of which is permitted by the president to exercise immense legislative, executive, and judicial power.

I agree , and John Deere is doing that with their tractors. Also Cummins is as well As per the government I am getting as many lasers as I can before the government notices them. and they surely will I am real surprised that China can send class IV lasers here without the Government cracking down. I am sure that as well will start happening. I have plenty of lasers but will get as many as I can before they become really illiegal
Maybe I am wrong but one more laser pointer pointed at a plane or helicopter it will happen just hoping not.