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FrozenGate by Avery

When can we expect decent Yellow Lasers?

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How long before we see 100-300mw Portable Yellow Lasers for a decent price?

5 years?
 
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Re: When can we expect decent Yellow lasers?

Depends on if they find a useful application for yellow lasers. Otherwise, I don't think prices will change much. If large laser displays pick up a bit more popularity, RGBY will likely be the next step. Then again, maybe a native yellow diode is in the near future.
 
I don't think that's going to happen, or at least for quite awhile. Yellow laser technology is mostly used in astronomy and they use I believe 6W-8W 589nm lasers for star guiding.

If/when 300mW portable yellows come out the cost will still be darn expensive. You're looking at about 1%-2% efficiency, and the heat such a process would generate would simply not work in a portable host. Hec, 5mW's of yellow in a handheld still has a short duty cycle. Imagine 300mW!!!!

Until yellow diodes are invented it will be a no-go :p

-Alex
 
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We're pretty much at the limit of DPSS yellow tech. Green was in a similar situation prior to the release of actual green laser diodes. The only possibilities in the future are if yellow lasers become more popular and price goes down due to economics, or if yellow diodes are invented. There's always hope though. I remember back when green and blue laser diodes were still in the experimental stage. 5 years later and we have high powered class IV direct diode green and blue lasers.
 
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I don't think that's going to happen, or at least for quite awhile. Yellow laser technology is mostly used in astronomy and they use I believe 6W-8W 589nm lasers for star guiding.

If/when 300mW portable yellows come out the cost will still be darn expensive. You're looking at about 1%-2% efficiency, and the heat such a process would generate would simply not work in a portable host. Hec, 5mW's of yellow in a handheld still has a short duty cycle. Imagine 300mW!!!!

Until yellow diodes are invented it will be a no-go :p

-Alex

Guide stars are 20-50Ws, water cooled. Got a few family in astronomy who showed me. Loud as hell.
 
Guide stars are 20-50Ws, water cooled. Got a few family in astronomy who showed me. Loud as hell.

I believe that both dye and DPSS lasers are used for sodium guide stars. Seems like the trend in newer observatories is going for fancy tunable DPSS lasers.

The only one I've ever seen was a dye jet laser, and it was definitely loud. Don't really see why a DPSS laser would be exceptionally loud though.

Edit: A portable dye laser would be cool though. I've heard of research using 405nm to pump one, but I don't think it'd be too successful.
 
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Edit: A portable dye laser would be cool though. I've heard of research using 405nm to pump one, but I don't think it'd be too successful.

How would you circulate the dye at 70-80 PSI in something as small as a handheld?

Unless you were able to overcome the problem of triplet-state build up in a solid dye-doped material, handheld dye lasers won't happen unfortunately. CW SS dye lasers exist, but the active medium has to be spun to prevent the aforementioned build up. :(
 
How would you circulate the dye at 70-80 PSI in something as small as a handheld?

Unless you were able to overcome the problem of triplet-state build up in a solid dye-doped material, handheld dye lasers won't happen unfortunately. CW SS dye lasers exist, but the active medium has to be spun to prevent the aforementioned build up. :(

I think a liquid dye laser just might be doable. The 70-80 psi is only necessary for dye jets. Plenty have been made circulating the normal liquid dye at lower pressures. The trouble would be that this would have a much higher lasing threshold than a dye jet unless some sort of clever trick I'm unaware of can be pulled off in the chemistry of the dye solution. There are plenty tiny DC pumps that could do the low pressure circulation. For a jet, there's the possibility that an ultrasonic nebulization technique like Epson printers use may work in a small package.

Spinning an SS dye rod might be more doable though.

I feel optical pumping is much more of an issue. UV pump diodes wouldn't be worth it at all, so somebody would have to figure out an alternative. If 405nm somehow worked, it'd be great.

Tiny arc lamps or a miracle UV high intensity LED, what else could be used?

Edit: Just checked the specs for a few rhodamine dyes (red to yellow lasers), and they have an absorption line around green as well. 532nm pumps seem to be used plenty. Maybe a 520nm pump diode could be used.

Also, flow rate may still be an issue without a jet. No idea of what'd be needed without doing a lot more research.
 
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I think a liquid dye laser just might be doable. The 70-80 psi is only necessary for dye jets. Plenty have been made circulating the normal liquid dye at lower pressures. The trouble would be that this would have a much higher lasing threshold than a dye jet unless some sort of clever trick I'm unaware of can be pulled off in the chemistry of the dye solution. There are plenty tiny DC pumps that could do the low pressure circulation. For a jet, there's the possibility that an ultrasonic nebulization technique like Epson printers use may work in a small package.

Spinning an SS dye rod might be more doable though.

I feel optical pumping is much more of an issue. UV pump diodes wouldn't be worth it at all, so somebody would have to figure out an alternative. If 405nm somehow worked, it'd be great.

Tiny arc lamps or a miracle UV high intensity LED, what else could be used?

Edit: Just checked the specs for a few rhodamine dyes (red to yellow lasers), and they have an absorption line around green as well. 532nm pumps seem to be used plenty. Maybe a 520nm pump diode could be used.

Also, flow rate may still be an issue without a jet. No idea of what'd be needed without doing a lot more research.

Yes, but with that approach come more issues.

A 520nm diode could work, after all dye lasers were originally pumped with the 514nm argon line. A lot of correction optics would need to be used, but it is not completely out of the question. With a dye such as Pyrromethene 597 (absorption max ~524nm in ethanol) and the appropriate triplet-quenchers, using a 520nm diode seems possible. A 405nm - 470nm diode might work if you mixed dyes, having a dye to convert the blue light to green, and then having the other dye convert it from green to yellow, though that sounds a bit messy, no? :)

A low-pressure system is more of the problem. Not only does the higher input requirement present a larger difficulty, but because of it burning of the dye cell windows is a very real possibility. This is why dye jet lasers are widely preferred for CW operation. And despite operating at a lower pressure, the dyes still have to be circulated at very fast speeds. Procon pumps are commonly used for dye-cell lasers, and are relatively affordable, but they could never be used for handheld operation. Some of the micropumps used for dye-jets are actually smaller.

As for the solid-state approach, the biggest problem is miniaturization. Currently, the lasers I referred to are experimental, and require rather large cavities. However, thus far it seems like the most likely and practical route to handheld dye-lasers.
 
Yes, but with that approach come more issues.

A 520nm diode could work, after all dye lasers were originally pumped with the 514nm argon line. A lot of correction optics would need to be used, but it is not completely out of the question. With a dye such as Pyrromethene 597 (absorption max ~524nm in ethanol) and the appropriate triplet-quenchers, using a 520nm diode seems possible. A 405nm - 470nm diode might work if you mixed dyes, having a dye to convert the blue light to green, and then having the other dye convert it from green to yellow, though that sounds a bit messy, no? :)

A low-pressure system is more of the problem. Not only does the higher input requirement present a larger difficulty, but because of it burning of the dye cell windows is a very real possibility. This is why dye jet lasers are widely preferred for CW operation. And despite operating at a lower pressure, the dyes still have to be circulated at very fast speeds. Procon pumps are commonly used for dye-cell lasers, and are relatively affordable, but they could never be used for handheld operation. Some of the micropumps used for dye-jets are actually smaller.

As for the solid-state approach, the biggest problem is miniaturization. Currently, the lasers I referred to are experimental, and require rather large cavities. However, thus far it seems like the most likely and practical route to handheld dye-lasers.

What do you think abut pulsing one? Could it be pulsed at a rate that would be tolerable for pointing with only a stagnant liquid cell?
 
What do you think abut pulsing one? Could it be pulsed at a rate that would be tolerable for pointing with only a stagnant liquid cell?

Oh definitely, superradiant pulsed dye lasers are one of the easiest lasers to construct, as they don't require special optics. Though finding a replacement for the bulky N2 pump laser may be a problem.

Unless you're talking about QCW operation... Which would require circulation.
 


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