Why are 445nm lasers so much more powerful than other wavelengths?

[qumefox]

I see....but wouldnt it be fairly simple to just make a better diode and stuff for other wavelengths? The price of yellow lasers to me is just crazy. $1000 for a 20mW yellow beam is just insanity.

Oh, i'm sure you can likely get diodes in any wavelength you want.. however.. Unless your bill gates, or richer.. It's unlikely you could afford them if they're 'lab samples'. Even 'common' diodes if you try to buy them straight from the source.. are ridiculously expensive.. It takes mass volume purchases to get the prices down.. which means that the diodes basically have to be in some kind of mass produced hardware... like projectors.. or optical drives.

I don't mean to pick on you because I've seen this from several people but what's the point now? They know this forum exists and that people are extracting and selling the diodes . As long as people aren't putting up tutorials on how to extract them or using their name in their "for sale" threads anymore there won't be anymore issues (baring any unforeseen massive acts of stupidity by someone).

I think it's more along the lines of 'better safe than sorry' than anything else.

 

[rhd]

I don't mean to pick on you because I've seen this from several people but what's the point now? They know this forum exists and that people are extracting and selling the diodes . As long as people aren't putting up tutorials on how to extract them or using their name in their "for sale" threads anymore there won't be anymore issues (baring any unforeseen massive acts of stupidity by someone).

When you properly define the "risk" as a "risk of incurring legal fees in the process of showing that you've done nothing wrong", then that risk never goes away.

However, it's not worth debating. Either way, we're not the ones exposed to the risk, so it's not our gamble to take.

(IMHO)

 

[Trevor]

There's also legal precedent that protects LPF...

-Trevor

 

[Things]

I'm probably going to make myself sound like an idiot here, but I believe the 445nm lasers are higher powered because the gain of the lasing medium is much higher, meaning you can pump more power into the die and it turns it into light more efficiently. With other diodes, this efficiency is a fair bit lower, so you can only pump so much power into them before they self destruct.

Why they can't make the other wavelengths higher powered, well, it'd require using a lasing material more efficient than the one currently in use.

 

[rhd]

There's also legal precedent that protects LPF...

-Trevor

What legal precedent is that?

 

[Bounty]

Thankyou to everybody that replied, very much appreciate all the knowledge. My brain is slowly being educated in the laser world.

@Things, that makes a lot of sense, before i didnt really know why you couldnt produce all the other wavelength diodes the same as blue, but i get what you mean.

Cheers

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

It also may have to do with the light density passing through or being reflected by the facet. Depending on the "emitting area" of the laser diode, you can have higher powers, at the cost of a larger emitting area.

 

[qumefox]

OT, but what's with the proliferation of nyancat in people's sigs? heh. Now they've invaded Things' sig. heh.

 

[Trevor]

What legal precedent is that?

This: http://laserpointerforums.com/f59/food-thought-60423.html

-Trevor

 

[Things]

OT, but what's with the proliferation of nyancat in people's sigs? heh. Now they've invaded Things' sig. heh.

I was one of the first to put it in my sig, but I dunno, nyan cat is taking over!

 

[qumefox]

Now I can't get the music out of my head.

And I just realized the progress indicator on the original video is nyancat too heh. At least when watched on the youtube page.

I think the first thing i'll do when I build a RGB projector is make a nyancat animation. heh. (Nevermind.. just saw this has been done already, though I think I could do a better job heh)