Infrared laser - can cause fluorescence?

[ohada]

Hello,

Does anyone have experience with IR lasers and know of any crystals or other materials that are fluorescent under IR?

I'm getting a bunch of crystals of many kinds and I already have 405, 473, 532 and 650nm lasers, and I'm thinking of buying an IR.

I'm checking Dragon Lasers, they have 808, 980, 1064 and 1342nm pen size lasers with safety key, all at seemingly acceptable prices, although I'll be glad to hear about alternatives,

And about goggles - will blue anti-red goggles from Wicked Lasers be enough? (don't know their OD rating... I'm not going to get any laser higher than 200mw (preferably 50-100mw) and I'm sure not going to shine it windows, mirrors, metals and anything that might reflect to my eyes).

Ohad

 

[billg519]

When fluorescence occurs, the light produced is lower in nm than the light providing the excitation. For instance, a bluray leser or UV lamp can be used to make many minerals, highliter pens, uranium doped marbles, etc. glow different colors. These colors are lower in nm than the UV light providing the excitation. If a material was to fluoresce under IR light, it would fluoresce deeper in the IR region and not be visible to the eye. You would need to look for the effect with something akin to a thermal imager that could separate the different IR frequencies.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will take a stab at this question.

Bill.

 

[ohada]

That's very interesting, thanks.

But did you mean higher in nm perhaps (lower in frequency)? Because lower nm than UV is invisible to humans unless I'm wrong, and for example Uranium Glass under UV makes a yellow-green color which is from what I understand around 520-570nm.

Higher nm than IR is indeed beyond-IR, so if that's how fluorescence works then IR is useless...

What about the crystals used in DPSS lasers?

If I had for example a big KTP or BBO crystal and I shined an IR laser on it (of correct nm) - would I see green or blue color emitted from it?

I'm guessing this isn't fluorescence at all, right?

Though I wouldn't mind having this DPSS effect with my crystals (or an effect similar to IR thermal sensor), I'm just looking to see some stones making some nice pretty colors...

Ohad

 

[MarioMaster]

Crystals in greens do not fluoresce. They sort of "combine" two photons of a lower energy, and combine them into a single higher energy photon. This also takes very careful alignment and optical coatings on the surface of the crystal.

An IR laser would only cause fluorescence deeper into the IR and longer wavelengths.

 

[RA_pierce]

But did you mean higher in nm perhaps (lower in frequency)? Because lower nm than UV is invisible to humans unless I'm wrong, and for example Uranium Glass under UV makes a yellow-green color which is from what I understand around 520-570nm.

Higher nm than IR is indeed beyond-IR, so if that's how fluorescence works then IR is useless...

Yes, that is how fluorescence works.
If you want fluorescence, go with Violet (Blu-ray). Before summer ends I want to take a blu-ray out into the desert and collect a few scorpions (they fluoresce green under UV).