Most power laser avalible to consumers?

[Ashton]

Very simple question. What's the most powerful laser avalible to consumers. And no, I dont care if you know a guy that will sell you a 4KW laser for just $20,000, that doesnt count

My guess is a SS1 YAG, (pusled) outputting power is ~ 1MW (1Megawat, 1000 mw)

 

[MarioMaster]

your best bet in terms of raw burning power would probably be one of the 100 watt CO2 lasers that float around on ebay, they go for about $2000 and are capable of burning just about anything

 

[likewhat]

What lasers are not available to consumers? If you can afford it you can buy any laser you want. I have never run across any restrictions when dealing with laser companies.

Generically, any Qwitched laser will have huge output powers up to many hundreds of megawatts. To get more power than that you need an amplified ultrashort pulsed laser. Most very high power lasers are built by the people who need them for some specific purpose, the market for terawatt lasers isnt really big enough for companies to stock them.

 

[Ashton]

@ mario: 2K? I've seen them for much closer to 1K, though the prices might have changed... I've been waverng back and forth between SS1 and CO2, though int eh end I'll probably end up with a CO2

 

[FrothyChimp]

Ashton,

My recommendation is the SSY1. The YAG laser gives you much more in the way of options for upgrading and tinkering (adding KTP, holography, adding larger flashtubes, adding diode pumping, building custom resonators, changing or removing q-switches, etc). The CO2 system is fixed since the tube is sealed. You can't really add more power without burning the tube. In the end, however, having both is the best of both worlds.

As far as the most powerful commercially available system for a consumer, it's only limited by the system meeting FDA requirements for safety systems. If the system contains the 5 required safety systems any consumer can purchase it. You can buy CO2 systems in the thousands of watts CW and pulsed systems in the hundreds of Joules if you have the cash.

 

[Daedal]

To consumers? You tell me where you can get a MegaWatt laser...

;D

I'd say the most powerful available to consumers is in the order of >100KW tops... And those would be the ones you get from buying a laser-powered metal-cutting CNC router for a few 100K-USD!

For a house user... 100-Watt CO@ would probably be a good cap...

Visible lasers would probably cap at around a few hundred watts... Prices are also in the same order as 'car', 'house', and 'lottery' too

GL;
DDL

 

[likewhat]

Here you go, a 2 terawatt commerically available laser.

http://www.dmphotonics.com/jaws brochure web.pdf

 

[cdanjo]

Wow! But the 2Tw is peak. Because the pulse width is only 80 femto seconds (10^-15 sec!) with a 10 Hz rep rate, the average power is only (2x10^12w)*(80*10^-15sec)*(10 sec^-1)=1.6 watts. Not even enough to cut metal.

 

[cdanjo]

Here's a REAL laser: http://www.llnl.gov/nif/project/nif_works.html, the National Ignition Facility will give 500Tw, 1.8MJ (not mJ!) pulses!!

 

[likewhat]

Well, I was answering the question "that you can buy?" and he said power, not energy or burning ability. With TW lasers you can make relativistic electrons when you breakdown air, that is pretty fun.

 

[Ashton]

To consumers? You tell me where you can get a MegaWatt laser...

Where else? eBay! lol. A SS1 YAG pulses at ~1MW. I'm seriously tempted by that being <$500! (though I have no idea what the PSU would cost. Atleast it dosent need cooling since it's pulsed) Though I have NO realistic use for it, since a single pulse isn't worth much to me unless I want to punch a hole through a lead pipe or soemthing lol.

 

[Aseras]

What's a consumer.. any tard who can read a book could build a nitrogen or copper vapor laser or a co2 laser fairly cheaply ( < $2k ) that'll be capable of pulses in the kilowatt or higher range and quasi CW power in the hundreds of watts.

 

[bombers_410]

yeah there are some pretty crazy lasers out there, its kind of sad that they are available to almost anyone with the money though. what if they got into the wrong hands!!??

 

[Aseras]

well even if they make a law that you can't but them, like I said it's easy enough to make a insanely powerful laser yourself if you can read and have basic access to building materials.

A trip to homedepot and radio shack and a thousand bucks worth of material and a week or so worth of work and you could have a laser capable of several hundereds watts CW or in the hundreds of joules per pulse ( 1 joule = 1 watt per second ) once you have a laser making ~ hundred joules per pulse you start cutting holes in ANYTHING. Steel, diamonds whatever.