Materials capable of laser absorption?

[fretless]

I was wondering if anyone here knew of any cheap materials capable of absorbing laser radiation and transforming it into other forms of energy.

 

[charliebruce]

DealExtreme tailcaps will absorb UV light and re-emit it as heat and greenish light. Is this the kind of thing you are referring to?

 

[nikokapo]

Unless you're talking about heat then what charliebruce is one option..

 

[potatorage]

Glow in the dark sheets are fun to write on with bluray lasers, You can also try florescent dyes and IR cards.

 

[fretless]

I was thinking maybe electricity, or even perhaps mechanical energy.

 

[Meatball]

solar cells will work alright with violet pumped onto them...

but honestly the amount of power compared with the efficiency of most solar cells won't allow much energy for any mechanical output. ~200mw onto a solar cell MIGHT yield 100mw of power for a motor... which of course isn't much.

 

[pullbangdead]

"Solar spinners", or whatever these things are called. A laser will spin the little thing inside in one direction.

 

[Cyparagon]

Any means of solar power (photovoltaic, liquid sodium, etc.) can feasibly also work with lasers. Light is light. However, since all solar power means are very inefficient, so too will be your process. The first photovoltaic cell result I see on ebay is less than 1% efficient.

 

[fretless]

I like the solar spinners. Sadly a google search brings up the wrong thing. how does it work? how fast does it spin? would it work without the bulb? how much energy can it absorb?

 

[Grix]

It's called a radiometer.

YouTube - 5mW green laser spinning a radiometer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8g5POVNPpY

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Unless you're talking about heat then what charliebruce is one option..

What kind of material will radiate the most heat with a 405nm focused on it?

 

[Meatball]

radiate heat? Do you mean, absorb heat? Or move heat? You might look at some materials with a lower specific heat. Copper for instance has a lower specific heat because it take less energy to raise one unit of copper mass by one degree. But for shining 405nm... I can't tell you. It completely depends on the absorption spectrum of the material, and its specific heat. Things that (for Hobbyists) are best found with experimentation.

 

[charliebruce]

Something like black-anodised aluminium absorbs nearly all of the laser light and re-emits as heat without being damaged. Essentially, anything dark-coloured will do, as long as it doesn't burn.

 

[Meatball]

something dark like graphite won't do a thing under most cases of laser light.. its specific heat is way too high for even 405nm to even touch.