Nichia begins sample shipments of green semiconductor lasers

[pullbangdead]

Are there ever going to be yellow and/or orange diodes? Or are they only going to make diodes up to 555nm?

Commercially, there's very little reason at this point to go beyond 520nm. I doubt we'll ever see commercial diodes above 520ish nm, because there's no commercial driving force to invest all the research money that would be necessary. Maybe some universities will have such things, but until there's a commercial application where companies can make money off of them, I doubt we'll ever see them.

The one thing I can think of at this moment is if (and I highly doubt it) someone wanted to try to make red lasers with the AlInGaN material system. If they did, then they would likely achieve yellow/orange on the way, but even then those diodes wouldn't ever be commercially produced to get the price down. For instance, 405nm and 445nm are now cheap, and 430nm is just as easy to produce as both those, but you never see it available because there's no mainstream commercial market. Same with everything between blue and green: 473nm, 490nm, etc are all easier to make than green diodes, but you'll likely never see them available because there aren't many mainstream commercial applications. Maybe one day we'll be pulling them out of DNA sequencers instead of big argon lasers. :crackup:

 

[diachi]

It would be fascinating and blindingly bright to see a 555nm diode. it's at the very peak of eye color sensitivity.

Done for ya!

Wouldn't be blindingly bright to see 1uW of 555nm green, would it? Also - the peak sensitivity shifts towards the orange/yellow at night IIRC, I could be wrong about that though ... feel free to correct me.

 

[AJ_Dual]

Commercially, there's very little reason at this point to go beyond 520nm. I doubt we'll ever see commercial diodes above 520ish nm, because there's no commercial driving force to invest all the research money that would be necessary. Maybe some universities will have such things, but until there's a commercial application where companies can make money off of them, I doubt we'll ever see them.

The one thing I can think of at this moment is if (and I highly doubt it) someone wanted to try to make red lasers with the AlInGaN material system. If they did, then they would likely achieve yellow/orange on the way, but even then those diodes wouldn't ever be commercially produced to get the price down. For instance, 405nm and 445nm are now cheap, and 430nm is just as easy to produce as both those, but you never see it available because there's no mainstream commercial market. Same with everything between blue and green: 473nm, 490nm, etc are all easier to make than green diodes, but you'll likely never see them available because there aren't many mainstream commercial applications. Maybe one day we'll be pulling them out of DNA sequencers instead of big argon lasers. :crackup:

Very true. If the driving market is going to be display tech. with RGB color mixing it'll always just be cheaper to mix in some red and blue than to make purpose built frequency specific diodes at some point. TV's, plasma, LCD, or phosphor/CRT's have always operated with fixed red blue and green dots. I know that one maker just came out with the new LCD's that have a yellow window in them now, but I've no idea if that'll catch on.

The other thing that is possibly kind of sad, is that will we ever see 1W "monster" green diodes like the new 445nm blues? With the peak of green in the human sensitivity graph being roughly 5x higher than blue, and up to 10-20x higher than red, if display technology is the main driver for diode development, there's no need to push them that high. At anything over 200mW, they'll outpce the blues and reds so badly there'll be no need to make them any brighter.

I suppose a monster projector that's meant to compete with full open windows and daylight might use one monster green, then X-number of red and blue diodes to fill in the lumens.

One can hope.

 

[x90z75ek]

Commercially, there's very little reason at this point to go beyond 520nm. I doubt we'll ever see commercial diodes above 520ish nm, because there's no commercial driving force to invest all the research money that would be necessary. Maybe some universities will have such things, but until there's a commercial application where companies can make money off of them, I doubt we'll ever see them.

The one thing I can think of at this moment is if (and I highly doubt it) someone wanted to try to make red lasers with the AlInGaN material system. If they did, then they would likely achieve yellow/orange on the way, but even then those diodes wouldn't ever be commercially produced to get the price down. For instance, 405nm and 445nm are now cheap, and 430nm is just as easy to produce as both those, but you never see it available because there's no mainstream commercial market. Same with everything between blue and green: 473nm, 490nm, etc are all easier to make than green diodes, but you'll likely never see them available because there aren't many mainstream commercial applications. Maybe one day we'll be pulling them out of DNA sequencers instead of big argon lasers. :crackup:

That's too bad. I've always wanted a yellow laser and a dpss is out of my budget.
Also maybe in the future we'll be pulling green lasers out of holographic drives.

 

[Meatball]

Commercially, there's very little reason at this point to go beyond 520nm. I doubt we'll ever see commercial diodes above 520ish nm, because there's no commercial driving force to invest all the research money that would be necessary. Maybe some universities will have such things, but until there's a commercial application where companies can make money off of them, I doubt we'll ever see them.

The one thing I can think of at this moment is if (and I highly doubt it) someone wanted to try to make red lasers with the AlInGaN material system. If they did, then they would likely achieve yellow/orange on the way, but even then those diodes wouldn't ever be commercially produced to get the price down. For instance, 405nm and 445nm are now cheap, and 430nm is just as easy to produce as both those, but you never see it available because there's no mainstream commercial market. Same with everything between blue and green: 473nm, 490nm, etc are all easier to make than green diodes, but you'll likely never see them available because there aren't many mainstream commercial applications. Maybe one day we'll be pulling them out of DNA sequencers instead of big argon lasers. :crackup:

You're always full of such interesting information. I didn't know about those 430s...

I wondered why the medical industry hasn't moved away from Argons...

the med industry hates the color blue anyways... would they not prefer yellows? LASERFAQ mentioned something about this once..

 

[ZRTMWA]

I like 515nm a lot more than 532nm color wise (although not for visibility obviously. By the way Dan, CNI and Viasho already sell 555nm lasers although diodes do not exist.

 

[Captain Dan]

I like 515nm a lot more than 532nm color wise (although not for visibility obviously. By the way Dan, CNI and Viasho already sell 555nm lasers although diodes do not exist.

That's why I said I would love to see a 555nm diode.

 

[hydrogenman15]

Wouldn't be blindingly bright to see 1uW of 555nm green, would it? Also - the peak sensitivity shifts towards the orange/yellow at night IIRC, I could be wrong about that though ... feel free to correct me.

It shifts towards blue. The peak human eye sensitivity is really relative to the lighting conditions. So 532nm might be brighter than 555nm in the dark.

--Hydro15

 

[flogged]

This is excellent, excellent news.

Sony attempted to make green LDs nearly 10 years ago, but were stymied by very short device lifespans.

I believe these GaN diode 'recipes' have peak operational efficiencies at high frequencies. First BluRay diodes were developed (405nm), then 440nm.. and now green. The sample part was outputting 50mW, consuming 200mA and 5 volts. So not as efficient as the blues.. however this is balanced by the fact the eye is much more sensitive to green than blue.

I'd also love to see yellow and orange LDs. I agree this is unlikely. Now that blue and green laser diodes are reality it's will be cheaper to make these colors be mixing green and red.

Any bets on how long it will be before handheld (RGB) pointers appear capable of displaying
any color appear?

 

[Prototype]

Found this Nichia to start sample shipment of green diode laser | R&D Mag which agrees with what was stated above, but at a case temperature of 25*C, not the 60*C Nichia said in their article. I'm personally more inclined to believe Nichia over some web article.

 

[aryntha]

Any bets on how long it will be before handheld (RGB) pointers appear capable of displaying
any color appear?

Eh, that'd be a hell of a mirror setup. It wouldn't be anything pen-sized. I'm still betting on about 2 years until we see them in a DIY fashion, a year after that before we start seeing them mainstream; I'd give a pointer or portable like that around the 4 year mark...

I hope I'm wrong; I'd like to get some 510 diodes sooner, but I think it'll be a bit, unless Casio already has some on order...

 

[Uranium]

Well, by the time they start mass producing these, they may be 1W like the blue diodes. Hell, the blue diodes at that time may push 5W. You know the projector companies would beg for more power in a can. Saves space.

 

[Pontiacg5]

Eh, that'd be a hell of a mirror setup. It wouldn't be anything pen-sized. I'm still betting on about 2 years until we see them in a DIY fashion, a year after that before we start seeing them mainstream; I'd give a pointer or portable like that around the 4 year mark...

I hope I'm wrong; I'd like to get some 510 diodes sooner, but I think it'll be a bit, unless Casio already has some on order...

You could make a full color RGB laser if you wanted, but it would be rather large. Look for the white fusion kit and the full color driver.

 

[Eudaimonium]

PBD, you are saying that there is no mainstream use for yellow diodes...

But there is for yellow DPSS? I mean heck, how much does it cost to effectively run that crystal manufacture process?

Maybe handheld pointer selling, entertainment-base, is enough to lead the production of yellow diodes?

If yellow DPSS did not exist today , we'd be saying "Yeah right, 589nm, it'll probably cost around $1200 per 50mW unit , which is unstable and inefficient, and there is no need for it."
We are saying that for diodes today. Who knows what happens tomorrow (except Chuck Norris)?

 

[Fonduman]

555nm would be good in some respects, visibility would be interesting. not fussed on the lime green colour though lol

 

[Antimony Trioxide]

It would be fascinating and blindingly bright to see a 555nm diode. it's at the very peak of eye color sensitivity.

Done for ya!

You beat me to it. They should make the diode at the peak human eye sensitivity wavelength. I guess when these things hit the streets, and when China gets a hold of them, there wont be any worrying about IR filters.