Viewing a 808nm IR laser

[snoutke]

I read in some places that a 808nm IR laser is invisible while others say it is barely visible. So, is it visible or invisible?

In case that it is invisible, how can I view it?

Are there any special goggles which I can view IR through?

Do the IR safety goggles enable viewing a little of the IR?

Please refer to the dot and the beam as well.

TIA

 

[Benm]

It depends on power ofcourse, but lets assume a 250mW or so pump diode: To me, the output shining onto a piece of paper is barely visible, the beam is not visible at all. I would not recommend looking at it though, its hard to gauge if the situation is dangerous or not. How bright 808 appears seem to vary between persons as well.

Safety goggles will block out the IR and make the dot invisible too.

Afaik there are no 'glasses' that allow you to see the IR better, unless you count night vision equipment as such. You can, however, see the output a lot better when looking through a digital cameras preview screen.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Near-IR is an extremely dark red color, and I doubt you'd be able to see a beam unless the laser is exceptionally powerful and there is no other light, and even then I'd doubt it.

 

[lasersbee]

It depends on your eyes...
I can see the faint red beam profile of a low powered IR
laser without goggles on a flat black surface.
But to do higher powered IR testing I use a video camera
to see the beam.
The beam profile is near invisible with IR goggles...
There is also an IR indicator card that can be used with
goggles..

BTW... just because the beam profile looks dim...
500mW of green and 500mW of IR will do the same
damage to your eyes...


@BB I can start seeing 808nm at about 30mW on a flat
black surface...

Jerry

 

[DJNY]

As a reference my review here:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/review-400mw-dinodirect-808nm-laser-63163.html#post900621

I see it about as dark as in the last vid there.


Guess you won´t have probelms seeing the dot of a higher powered 808nm.