Is burning power linear to wattage?

[brendon7358]

For instance (I have not tested this because I do not have enough lasers and I know there are a lot more factors than wattage such as beam diameter but lets just say they are all the same and on infinity) if a 50mW 532nm can burn through a black garbage bag in lets say 1 of a second would a 200mW 532nm burn through in .25 of a second? and if a 1W 445nm lights a match in 2 seconds would a 1.2W light a match in 1.5 seconds? Also what about beam brightness (I know the divergence and beam diameter affects this too but lets just assume it is all the same) if a 5mW 532nm is 3 lumens would a 500mW 532nm be 300 lumens ? I may be a complete noob in this matter but I'm just wondering from those of you who have a laser collection large enough to test these things. My main reason for asking this is really is how much of a difference is there in burning power from a 500mW-1W-1.2W-1.5W-2W 445nm laser?

p.s. Would it be possible to take 100 1mW lasers and focus them all to one point and burn something the same as a 100mW laser?

 

[Seoul_lasers]

For instance (I have not tested this because I do not have enough lasers and I know there are a lot more factors than wattage such as beam diameter but lets just say they are all the same and on infinity) if a 50mW 532nm can burn through a black garbage bag in lets say 1 of a second would a 200mW 532nm burn through in .25 of a second? and if a 1W 445nm lights a match in 2 seconds would a 1.2W light a match in 1.5 seconds? Also what about beam brightness (I know the divergence and beam diameter affects this too but lets just assume it is all the same) if a 5mW 532nm is 3 lumens would a 500mW 532nm be 300 lumens ? I may be a complete noob in this matter but I'm just wondering from those of you who have a laser collection large enough to test these things. My main reason for asking this is really is how much of a difference is there in burning power from a 500mW-1W-1.2W-1.5W-2W 445nm laser?

p.s. Would it be possible to take 100 1mW lasers and focus them all to one point and burn something the same as a 100mW laser?

Simple answer is wattage alone is non-linear to burning power....

It's actually a 3 part answer.

1) Optical power (mW or W) output of laser beam
2) Wavelength of the laser. The longer wavelengths absorb into nearly everything except a handful of special materials ZnSe, NaCl...etc. Hence this is why you can cut nearly any kind of metals with CO2 lasers and it would be nearly impossible with a Red, Blue or Green laser of the same optical power. Military lasers for defence are all in the IR spectrum 808nm -~10.6um. Very few materials can withstand high power longwave IR.

3) Power density. More focus, more energy per unit of space, the faster your material being subjected to the beam heats up. Focal point is essential for any laser doing cutting, burning, optical trapping.....etc..


multidiode lasers are combined in industry all the time for cutting.
LDA (laser diode arrays). In theory this is what you'd be doing with those 1mW lasers...cutting materials. Higher the power density the hotter the material gets at the focal point.

 

[brendon7358]

Simple answer is wattage alone is non-linear to burning power....

It's actually a 3 part answer.

1) Optical power (mW or W) output of laser beam
2) Wavelength of the laser. The longer wavelengths absorb into nearly everything except a handful of special materials ZnSe, NaCl...etc. Hence this is why you can cut nearly any kind of metals with CO2 lasers and it would be nearly impossible with a Red, Blue or Green laser of the same optical power. Military lasers for defence are all in the IR spectrum 808nm -~10.6um. Very few materials can withstand high power longwave IR.

3) Power density. More focus, more energy per unit of space, the faster your material being subjected to the beam heats up. Focal point is essential for any laser doing cutting, burning, optical trapping.....etc..


multidiode lasers are combined in industry all the time for cutting.
LDA (laser diode arrays). In theory this is what you'd be doing with those 1mW lasers...cutting materials. Higher the power density the hotter the material gets at the focal point.

:thanks: I actually tried the multidiode thing by taking a 405nm from ebay and a 650nm from ebay and put them both on the same spot and it burned around 1.5x as fast as just the 405nm by itself