The future of lasers

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[quote author=nikokapo link=1212434636/0#11 date=1212551089][quote author=styropyro link=1212434636/0#10 date=1212543350]For visible laser diodes, I can see blue and green diodes being mass produced for use in new RGB technologies sometime in the future. I don't see orange or yellow laser diodes becoming available because there is no real use for them at the moment.

IMO, blue diodes are getting more attention than green. They can be used for mass storage devices, green arent really better than blue diodes, so I don't see greenies getting cheaper than blue (in percentage) over the years.[/quote]
From a pure practicality standpoint, it would seem that the manufacturers will move to UV lasers before they create a violet or blue diode. UV has shorter wavelength, so greater data density. Unfortunately that means they move out of the visible spectrum. From there they may develop green, blue, or violet diodes, because then they might be able to use fewer frequency doublers (greater efficiency) for those UV lasers.[/quote]

Violet diodes already exist , mass produced and cheap enough for us to have them IIIB in our pointers
I haven't heard solid state lasers being pumped by anything but IR for now...Btw, what do you mean "fewer frequency doublers" ? We only use 1 , the KTP(or LBO or whatever) :-/ I've heard of frequency tripling, but 2 frequency doublers would mean 4x original frequency.
And don't be afraid of data storage disk diodes going out of the visible spectrum, there's HVD to the rescue: Red+Green lasers (1W for green ) , storage measured in TB on one single small disk.1W green diode anyone?
Not to mention laser projectors and laser TV. :

But making them slower will drop their temperatures?

Of course.You know, no particle movement = 0 Kelvin.That's why they can't think of anything colder than that. :-/ The only thing slower than standing still is moving in the opposite direction, but you can't do that when the original movement was random.

 

[mikewitt]

But making them slower will drop their temperatures?

Of course.You know, no particle movement = 0 Kelvin.That's why they can't think of anything colder than that. :-/ The only thing slower than standing still is moving in the opposite direction, but you can't do that when the original movement was random.

There is nothing slower than standing still. Slow is related to speed, not velocity, speed = absolute value of velocity. Speed cannot be negative.

We can't go below 0k because at 0k, matter looses all volume (theoretically, at least); going below 0k would give matter negative volume, which cannot happen.

 

[pullbangdead]

Alright, a little more science.

First, where are these green laser diodes? I don't think they exist (not to the level that they are useful), but please point me in the right direction, and my dissertation would get a heck of a lot easier!

There's still a ton of work to be done with violet diodes for data storage before they go on to UV or anything like that. But they probably will eventually, but that's not an area of active research at the moment. There is, however, a lot of active research going on it blue and green laser diodes. These will happen soon, and for laser televisions, displays, etc. But green laser diodes are very hard to make, there are a lot of problems with them and with the stuff they're made out of. But they'll get there, and cellphone RGB wall projectors with better resolution than your plasma TV will be plausible.

Another thing is that the violet, blue, and green will all be getting more efficient in the future, because there have been some other major breakthroughs in recent months. This year, the first laser ever made on non-polar gallium nitride (all our violet lasers now are made on polar gallium nitride) was just demonstrated, and while these don't work as well yet, the ceiling of performance should be much higher with future work.

 

[pseudonomen137]

That last quote is messed up I thought they banned exploding bullets for that reason.Reminds me of the video wannaburn posted, with the mysterious limb and head cutting , abdomen opening weapon.

Btw, if you like to experiment on a small scale, I saw a huge diode array type thingy on ebay for $1000(or that was just the starting bid :-/) made out of ten 100W 808nm bars, so there you go, your own kiloWatt laser 15mRad claimed by the manufacturer , but the seller said he tested it and got better results.
Sounds expensive, but maybe after you build the whole PSU and cooling system, you're still gonna have something with $2/Watt, which is pretty cheap.

I don't imagine what kind of wall socket would give you 300Amps, though :-/

Dont forget thats not a kW laser though - its still just a good 90-300 couple watt lasers. That's what these killer kW SS lasers are trying to do though - take lots of reasonably powered light sources, and using that intense energy to pump the medium for one killer single laser. Its expensive, not all that efficient, and one hell of a task, but that way you have a single powerful beam. (afterall, whats gunna do more damage: 5000 bullets at 1mph, or 1 bullet at 1000mph?)

 

[nikokapo]

Hhahaha i can imagine ourselves ripping off laser TVs on the future to make 1200 pointers off of them

 

[pullbangdead]

Hhahaha i can imagine ourselves ripping off laser TVs on the future to make 1200 pointers off of them

You only need 3 laser to make a tv, and just scan them. A good red (done and done), a good blue, and and a good green is all you need. Just the 3.

 

[nikokapo]

[quote author=nikokapo link=1212434636/36#36 date=1212865079]Hhahaha i can imagine ourselves ripping off laser TVs on the future to make 1200 pointers off of them

You only need 3 laser to make a tv, and just scan them.  A good red (done and done), a good blue, and and a good green is all you need.  Just the 3.[/quote]

Very well then, just 3 laser pointers.....but heck of laser pointers!!

we'll need a lavadrive v5.7 for those

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

I also forgot to add that I think (well, not think - KNOW! Given the past 10 years) that laser power will continue to increase quite a bit. Not only for giant laser systems that make the news but for the small portable stuff that those of us here tend to have.

I got into lasers 10 years ago and back then all you could find available to the general public (i.e. non lab, medical or industrial settings) were 2 mw red laser pointers, costing more than $50 sometimes. That's close to what I paid for my first red laser pointer back then. Now that same $50 will at least get you into class 3B territory and the 2mw reds can be had for a buck or little more.

I had no clue in 1998 that I would EVER have in my possession the lasers that I now own. I would have laughed back then if someone had told me I'd have my own CO2 and YAG laser that can destroy and burn things.

We can only wonder what the laser world will look like in 2018....maybe then I'll have a 500 watt laser in my garage - but much more efficient, wall-plug powered and easily cooled!

 

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We can only wonder what the laser world will look like in 2018....maybe then I'll have a 500 watt laser in my garage - but much more efficient, wall-plug powered and easily cooled!

AWSUM! And multiwatt portables, yay!

 

[nikokapo]

We can only wonder what the laser world will look like in 2018....maybe then I'll have a 500 watt laser in my garage - but much more efficient, wall-plug powered and easily cooled!

AWSUM! And multiwatt portables, yay!

All of this provided we don't die on the nuclear holocaust and the only things that survive are cockroaches and Cher.