Thor Labs PM-160 Diffusion slotted over the top ensures the beam spreads evenly over entire sensing area. The sensing area is actually smaller than 1cm2, so you need to adjust the reading you want to see accordingly: 9.5mm aperture = 0.70882cm2 So for 1mW MPE you actually read 0.71mW on the meter They have to […]
Category: Laser hardware
Cables(1)
Laser Types
LASER – Light Amplification Stimulated Emission of Radiation Characteristics of a laser: Ion laser Original types of lasers. Glass tube filled with inert gas. E.g. argon, crypton. Nobel gasses. Better beam quality than modern diode lasers, 2mm wide beam, solid colour. Old timers often lament how much better their colours were. Electrodes placed each side […]
History of display lasers
1917 Lasers were theorised by Einstein. 1960 Ruby rod was used to create a laser 1967 First display laser use in a live music produciton (Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention used a helium-neon laser in LA). Late 60’s / early 70’s The Who were prolific users of lasers in their show, also Led […]
Laser settings
Blanking offset Often a setting of 3 or 4 points is optimal. (The setting refers to the delay, measured in points, that is applied to the color signals, compared to the X/Y position signals. The color signals are delayed to allow the scanners to “catch up”, since the lasers can be turned on and off […]
Scanner speed
Scan speed Slower scan speeds allow more time for the scanners to get to where they are going, so they can catch up to the color signals. Thus, the mirrors are in the perfect position when the laser turns on and you don’t have any tails. But as you increase the scan speed, you can […]
Beam divergence
mrad 1mrad = 1 meter at 1km (ignoring initial beam size, i.e assuming its 0) 1mrad is considered baseline for lasers.Anything tighter is considered a higher quality system. 0.4mrad is pretty much maxed out tightest possibleConsider too, that although a high value means your beam becomes bigger and less sharp visually, it does also mean […]
