I want a QUALITY beam...

[tsteele93]

Ok, I've gotten several lasers here with different characteristics. I have a 445nm, 1.24watt (!) survival laser for under $200 that burns things! I have a rhd red lipstick build on the way and I have a couple of greens 400mW(?) and 60mW from Cajun lasers, and a $40 red of ok quality.

In some ways, the $40/60mW is my favorite because it is small, bright and the beam is tight.

Obviously I haven't seen the lipstick red yet, but I would like to head another direction.

I would still like power where possible, but I want to find some lasers that have tight beams and low divergence.

So... Any suggestions?

This looks reasonably priced with good beam specs, anyone suggest anything better?

Optotronics Green Pen Pointers

One other thing, I'm only starting to understand which frequencies are even capable of (affordable) having good beam specs. Is there an easy guide to knowing which colors are more likely to have good beam specs?

Thanks for any tips you can offer!

ts

 

[Sigurthr]

Basically you want a Single Mode laser (also called TEM00).

450nm diodes under $150mW are single mode and have excellent beam specs like your $40 red.

All power levels of DPSS lasers are capable of being single mode as well, beam quality often coincides with price though. You can certainly get multimode or off-mode DPSS units on the cheap though.

For diodes; 650/660nm, 405nm, 510nm (very rare and expensive), and the low power blues I mentioned above are all single mode diodes. Any other wavelength diodes (aside from 670nm and up NIR and IR) are likely multimode which has the nasty beamspecs.

So, if you stick to 405nm, <150mW 445/450nm, 510nm, or 650/660nm you should get a good quality beam. Of all of those the 405nm are available in the highest powers.

 

[DrSid]

450nm diodes under $150mW are single mode and have excellent beam specs like your $40 red.

I guess you meant 405nm ..

 

[ElektroFreak]

There are currently 450nm singlemode diodes available as sigurthr said.

 

[rhd]

I guess you meant 405nm ..

He's correct, we have single-mode blues now. I have a build for sale actually:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/f...ghest-powered-sm-blue-build-so-far-70682.html

While I'm at it, I also have a DPSS yellow for sale Great beam also, since it's DPSS.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/fs-cni-glp-593-5nm-594-pointer-rated-3-5mw-70665.html

At any rate, you'll generally want to stick to DPSS for the *best* beam characteristics. However, there's one option nobody mentioned (as of yet), and that's the HL63133DG. It's a single-mode red diode, so it has good beam characteristics. However, it's also ~638nm, so it's more highly visible than the reds you may be used to at 650 or 660nm. The only downside is that the diode alone costs about $200.

 

[tsteele93]

He's correct, we have single-mode blues now. I have a build for sale actually:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/f...ghest-powered-sm-blue-build-so-far-70682.html

You have a PM.

:angel:

ts

 

[Sigurthr]

You'll love that single mode blue - they're really beautiful. I love mine, I use it the most out of all my lasers.