Jump to content

1W laser burning stuff


Recommended Posts

  • 3 months later...

Yes actually, is 532nm the best for the human vision? what does the W actually mean , other than a 1000 milli watts, is it the heat? i mean a watt refers to a joule and a joule refers to a newton and a newton refers to a law of motion ....

 

i mean to say what makes it defined as 1W to a 300mW(without linking 5 separate equations), im guessing its essentially the concentration of light? and maybe something related to infra red (when talking about carrying heat) not the wattage.

 

im thinking of doing some research into robotics and lasers for a dissertation, such as creating basic images on a wall or reacting to sound input. cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes actually, is 532nm the best for the human vision? what does the W actually mean , other than a 1000 milli watts, is it the heat? i mean a watt refers to a joule and a joule refers to a newton and a newton refers to a law of motion ....

 

 

The eye is most sensitive (light adjusted) at around 555 nm. So a given amount of light energy will appear brightest if it's at that wavelength; 1 Watt has a Luminous flux (or power) of 683 lumens. At other wavelengths it is smaller, meaning it does not appear as bright.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mains electricity is so much higher. Isn't it possible to have a 250W (mains 'lec in UK, not sure about the US) homemade laser? That sounds ridiculously dangerous.

 

or carry a ghost buster backpack around with a car battery in it?

 

i dont want anything dangerous. I want something portable but essentially i want to create a mechanism that controls the lasers precision, ive seen some awesome videos on youtube of people building personal laser displays with mirrors, balloons and bass but i wanna try program my own stuff and do alot more with it.

 

also what scientifically constrains the power a laser can output?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mains electricity is so much higher. Isn't it possible to have a 250W (mains 'lec in UK, not sure about the US) homemade laser? That sounds ridiculously dangerous.

Mains electricity is 240 Volts in the UK and 120 in the US. That merely indicates the energy per unit of electrical charge in the electricity; it has nothing to do with how many watts of power the resulting laser consumes. (Although, if you plug a laser made for a 5V power supply into a 500V one, it will put out 100 times the power... very briefly, before something important melts.)

 

also what scientifically constrains the power a laser can output?

Heat is a big problem. Lasers are not particularly efficient, so a lot of the power you put in just goes to heat. You have to cool the system effectively if you want it to run for any significant period of time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.