# Do Red & Green Lasers Burn equally well? Not that you should do such things.



## jtice (Jul 12, 2006)

Not that I or anyone should be trying to burn things with lasers...

But....  

Do red and green lasers of equal nW ratings, burn things as equally?

I am assuming not, but I dont know much of a differnce there would be,

I know that you need alot higher mW red laser, to appear as bright as a green laser, 
but that is due to the wave length, and how the human eye sees it.

Thanks
~John


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## jkaiser3000 (Jul 12, 2006)

In theory they should burn equally well (or badly). But there are many variables that affect the burning capability of a laser, like beam size and absorbing capacity of the material being burned.

For instance, you may have a 100 mw red laser with a 0.1 mm beam diameter (focused, of course), but may not be able to burn through a red baloon, while a 100 mw green laser may burn through in no time.

In order to compare two different lasers, you'll need to keep this variables as similar as possible, for example, using black baloons to absorb the light equally. But beam size is a bit more complicated. Using a given lens for both lasers will result in different sizes, as the focused beam size will depend on wavelength and initial spot size.


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## Athoul (Jul 13, 2006)

If they are of the same output, then they will have the same burning abiltiy to an extent. The difference being that shorter wavelengths can be focused to a smaller area then longer wavelengths. This means that you can have more energy/area and thus greater burning ability on the shorter wavelength lasers even if the output is the same. This means that technically a blue laser is capable of burning better then a green or a red etc.. Of course this difference will probably be too small to be of any notice for most applications that hobbiests use lasers for.


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 13, 2006)

I'm hoping to get my mitts on a 50mW blue DPSS (473nm) laser soon (the listing ends at 8:30pm PDT today); if I win it, I'll compare it with my 50mW green DPSS laser by attempting to ignite common paper matches with both and see which one comes out ahead.

But even before I start the experiment, I think that the blue laser will come out ahead for the reasons Athoul explained in the previous post.


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 14, 2006)

Well, the experiment is off.
Some seminefrious tubloidial bungsnoidial buttsnoid sniped me with just two seconds to go.  :shakehead:  :shakehead:


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## Jumpmaster (Jul 14, 2006)

Wow...should've bid more, huh?  That sucks...I hate losing auctions. I usually use esnipe and it works pretty well, but you have to make sure you're bidding the absolute maximum you'd pay -- that way if someone else wins it, you know you wouldn't have paid more than what you already bid.

BTW, I only *wish* I could afford a blue laser...wasn't me...

JM-99


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 14, 2006)

I bid $1,501.51 when the current price was $616.66.
The unit was won for $1,503.00.


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## Jumpmaster (Jul 14, 2006)

Yep...if you bid the absolute maximum you were willing to spend, then you did exactly as you should've. I know it really sucks to lose by only a couple of bucks, but...

It may not make you feel any better, but the chump could've bid $2500 just to make sure they won it...you'd never see their max, so it makes it look like they were only willing to pay a couple of bucks more than you...

JM-99


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 14, 2006)

Ok, now I snagged me a 100mW 473nm blue DPSS laser. 

(Edit, a few moments later)
I could afford this only because one of the advertisers on my website paid for their banners a year in advance; otherwise there's no way in {_H-E-double hockey sticks_} I could have made this purchase...and that's one reason I have banners - to be able to buy exotic photonic items like this to evaluate on my website I might not otherwise be able to afford.


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## Jumpmaster (Jul 14, 2006)

See? Even better...

JM-99


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 14, 2006)

Now I have to find a 100mW green DPSS laser to make this experiment valid.


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## jtice (Jul 14, 2006)

I will have a 100mW 532nm (green) laser on the way from ExtremeLasers soon !!! 

$225 shipped for the fan cooled version
$250 for the TEC (thermoelectric cooled) version

Think I am going to go with the TEC version.
They are supposed to be more stable, and have a longer life span.

~John


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## mccavazos (Jul 14, 2006)

jtice said:


> I will have a 100mW 532nm (green) laser on the way from ExtremeLasers soon !!!
> 
> $225 shipped for the fan cooled version
> $250 for the TEC (thermoelectric cooled) version
> ...



That is an incredible price. I couldn't find it on their website, do you have a link?

Thanks,
Chris


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## winny (Jul 14, 2006)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Ok, now I snagged me a 100mW 473nm blue DPSS laser.



I just wanted to clarify that you will be cursed upon if you don't put up beamshots of it really soon! You owe us that!


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## jtice (Jul 14, 2006)

They arent listed on their site, 
they sell them for that price on ebay,
couple just sold last night for about $225 shipped, they were GBS-100 models.
Which is the fan cooled ones,
I am not sure what model the TEC unit is.
I dont see any 100mW green TEC units on their site.

I would just email or call them, and ask for one, worked for me 
I think they might be based in texas also, lucky you.

~John


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## mccavazos (Jul 14, 2006)

Thanks, Jtice.

Chris


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 14, 2006)

winny said:


> I just wanted to clarify that you will be cursed upon if you don't put up beamshots of it really soon! You owe us that!


I can guarantee beam termination (target/wall) photographs of it shortly after its receipt; but I'll have to wait until after dark to obtain any photographs of the actual beam, as this is a nonsmoking home and I'll have to use the outdoor patio for such purposes. Levels of particulate matter in the atmosphere inside the home may be too low to show the actual laser beam, unless I use an aerosol bomb (such as aerosol air freshener) to spray above the beam path immediately prior to attempting to take a photograph of the laser's beam.


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## winny (Jul 15, 2006)

The_LED_Museum said:


> I can guarantee beam termination (target/wall) photographs of it shortly after its receipt; but I'll have to wait until after dark to obtain any photographs of the actual beam, as this is a nonsmoking home and I'll have to use the outdoor patio for such purposes. Levels of particulate matter in the atmosphere inside the home may be too low to show the actual laser beam, unless I use an aerosol bomb (such as aerosol air freshener) to spray above the beam path immediately prior to attempting to take a photograph of the laser's beam.



That's fully satisfactory! Thanks!


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## The_LED_Museum (Jul 15, 2006)

I also snagged a 150mW 660nm red laser last night; this will be the most powerful laser in my Arsenal of Freedom (Star Trek reference there).


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