Turning red laser to green.

[plasmaninjaa]

Hey i needed help with something.
I have a laser (now broken) that was supposed to be a green argon 50mw laser.
But when i took it apart, i took off the lense which had some kind of a filter on it. When i took it off and turned on the diode, it was red! But when i put the filter thing back on it, it was green. i didnt have any time to experiment with this because the diode died right afterwards.
So i was wondering, how is this possible?
I still have the filter thing.
It lookes like it is made out of glass, and it looks kind of blueish green when it is reflecting light when i look at it. I think it might have something to do with chrystals?
Also, i brought the thing to school and shined a basic laser pointer through it but it stayed red. Somebody please enlighten me!!!

 

[RA_pierce]

First, it's not an Argon laser. Those are gas lasers.
What you had is called a DPSS laser. The "lense" you removed was a crystal set that converts the light from the diode to green.
The "red" diode is actually near-infrared. It is a powerful diode and it is not recommended that you look into it even though it does not look bright.

Read up on DPSS lasers and color sensitivity to different wavelengths. It will help you to understand what is happening.
The information is here. Otherwise, google will help you.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[qumefox]

As RA pierce said, it's not a filter. It's actually a pair of crystals. ND:YVO4 and KTP. And the 'quantum magic' that gives you green only happens with a very specific input wavelength. namely, 808nm. Which is for all practical purposes is infrared. You will see it as a dim red, but these are NOT eye safe even though it doesn't look bright. It'll fry your retina's just the same.

 

[lazzerjim]

First, it's not an Argon laser. Those are gas lasers.

now i know what not to call an argon laser.