Zogol.com Free Article Directory

Welcome Guest

Search:

Zogol.com » Reference-and-education » Science » Having Fun With Green Lasers

Having Fun With Green Lasers

View PDF | Print View
by: RichardWest
Total views: 30
Word Count: 598

Today, just about everyone owns a red beam laser pointer. Whether it has been used at work in conjunction with a PowerPoint presentation or to amuse yourself by teasing your cat or dog or, better yet, used to plant a red dot on your friend's forehead, red beam lasers have been around for a while and contributed to many fun moments in the lives of otherwise sober techno-geeks and non-geeks as well.

But now the novelty of red-beamed laser pointers has worn off. They're nothing new to see, and almost everyone has one. It's a good chance that even your grandma, who has no idea what PowerPoint even is, has one. If you want to get the best technological toy out there, you've got to move to the next level.

Any techie knows that the red beams use 650 nm wavelengths. Powerful new laser pointers on the much improved 532 nm wavelength are now available on the market. And do you know what the more intense frequency creates? It creates a green beam.

Green goes further and shines brighter than red, meaning that it can highlight objects from a greater distance. Instead of just pointing the beam on your friend across the room or the PowerPoint slide behind you, you can now direct the green beam on clouds and constellations in the sky. It's so powerful and bright that it's even visible outside in the sunlight.

In fact, if you use this laser outside and do happen to point it at an airplane, it's so powerful you could get yourself put in jail. Yes, pointing a sighting device at a plane could get the feds coming to your house to investigate whether you are planning to point something more than a laser at planes. What little red pointer can get you in that much trouble?

And the green laser pointer doesn't produce just a wee little spot. You can see the whole beam as it travels to the stars. Think Luke and his light saber. See the possibilities?

A green laser pointer is at a whole separate plane from the old-style red laser pointer. For a true green, a pointer needs a green direct injection laser diode. These diodes could be potentially dangerous if handled by the public at large, so they're not even available wholesale. So this complicated process follows to keep hazardous material out of peoples' hands. (And only the geeks in the room will understand a word of it.)

The green laser pointers, available on the market today, all use Diode Pumped Solid State Frequency Doubled technology, aka DPSSFD, which is good news for everyone. Basically, this means that an infrared laser diode pumps out 808 nm, which is then altered to 1,064 nm, which is then shot into a crystal that doubles the frequency to produce the green beam at 532 nm. (It should go without saying, because only card-carrying geeks are reading this, which with frequency smaller numbers mean stronger.)

So it is no wonder that green laser pointers are a must-have for the geek elite. While the green laser has been around a while, it's not so easy to find outside of technical settings (again, remember they can target airplanes). They're also not cheap. While you can pick up a red pointer for less than $10, a green one will set you back $50 or so, not out of reach, just not something you might purchase casually (or more to the point, something your grandmother won't purchase on the spur of the moment). Go on, you know you want one. Yeah, you know you really need one. What's stopping you?

About the Author

Have you been looking for a beautiful green 150mw green laser pointer gadget? If so, you should consider picking up the 150mw green laser pointer gadget by checking out our review.


HTML Code For Copy & Paste

The following code can be copied and pasted into your web page to ensure all links are properly maintained.


Rating: Not yet rated

Comments

No comments posted.

Add Comment

You do not have permission to comment. If you log in, you may be able to comment.