510nm laser diodes within hobbiest hands

[White-Light]

One question karl, putting aside the wavelength limitations at the moment, is there any prospect of high power low cost green diodes on the horizon yet?

[kguttag]

It all depends on what you mean by high powered and low cost. I think in 2012 the power is going to be less than 100mW and the cost will be more than $30 at 10,000 units. I have no idea what the quantity 1 price will be. I think things will start to change in 2013 and may start to look good by 2014 but there is a lot of "physics/manufacturing" yet to be solved to make them inexpensive as best I can understand.

[MoonShad0w]

Thanks for that info, Karl. Good to have you here. Just out of interest, are there any current cinema projectors that employ laser-based light sources?

[holokidd]

Thanks for the Blog Karl great info there! i have a question, what is the LineWidth of theses current diodes (less than 2nm?), what im getting at is will thesediodes be useful holography, interferometry, etc ...and has the coherent length of thes diodes been tested ?

Super anxious for your response !

[kguttag]

Thanks for that info, Karl. Good to have you here. Just out of interest, are there any current cinema projectors that employ laser-based light sources?

The short answer is that there are a lot of trials going on, but I don't know of any permanent laser movie theater.

I'm not an expert on the big projectors. Through the years I have become friends with Bill Beck of Laser Light Engines http://www.laserlightengines.com/. Here is an article about them from a year ago http://dcinematools.com/-ware/the-fu...t-engines.html. Bill makes what seems to be a good case that lasers are already becoming economical due to the cost of theater bulb replacement.

A key problem now is the FDA and their laser light regulations. If you look directly into a normal bulb theater projector, it will blind you it is so bright so there is little technical difference, but the FDA has a special charter to regulate laser use. There is no commons sense at work here, it is government regulation.

Bill Beck's Laser Light Engines has been a big champion of large venue (big conference rooms and similar venues) and theater laser projectors and does a lot of work to promote the industry as a whole. They are also one of the founders of the Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA). LIPA seems to be aimed more at large venue but non-theater.

Kodak has been a big champion for theater lasers and about a half year ago received a waver http://motion.kodak.com/motion/uploa..._LDR_Kodak.pdf. I've also made friends with Barry Silverstein of Kodak. Unfortunately Kodak itself appears to be in severe financial trouble. Also Kodak got a waver for their specific configuration and not a broad industry rule change.

Theaters are much easier (yet it still took a lot of effort on Kodak's part) to get an FDA waver because of the fixed configuration of a movie theater. Large venues, like a very large conference room require a large amount of light but the set up is often temporary. Getting sensible regulations approved by the FDA is a big takes and LIPA was formed to get multiple companies involve.

[kguttag]

Thanks for the Blog Karl great info there! i have a question, what is the LineWidth of theses current diodes (less than 2nm?), what im getting at is will thesediodes be useful holography, interferometry, etc ...and has the coherent length of thes diodes been tested ?

Super anxious for your response !

I'm not sure if I totally understand your question. For projectors coherence causes speckle which is very hard to reduce so we want 2nm or more of spectral width. The desires for projectors is probably adverse to the interest of other applications. We want a "sloppy laser" with as little coherence as possible. One way to break up coherence is to increase the bandwidth.

[kecked]

Ok so who has these diodes and can we buy them now in single quantities? I'd like to do a 4 banger. 100mw of green would be plenty for my little system. BTW. adapting 3.8mm diodes is a major pain in the ass. They are major tiny. We had to use thermal epoxy and a lot of care to mount the 50mw 445nm diodes. Had really nice beam quality thou. In fact I'd like to use one of these with that diode and a 660nm 250mw for real nice small programing projector. Beam quality would be amazing.

[mccarrot]

Ok so who has these diodes and can we buy them now in single quantities? I'd like to do a 4 banger. 100mw of green would be plenty for my little system. BTW. adapting 3.8mm diodes is a major pain in the ass. They are major tiny. We had to use thermal epoxy and a lot of care to mount the 50mw 445nm diodes. Had really nice beam quality thou. In fact I'd like to use one of these with that diode and a 660nm 250mw for real nice small programing projector. Beam quality would be amazing.

For our tripple combiners there are 3.8mm diode collimator's available.

would be nice to build a full diode RGB with it.

[masterpj]

Full diode RGB....omggg that would be awsome!
The modulation would be way better then with the DPSS green.
I do also prefer the 532nm deep green color though.

[-bart-]

Afaik nobody has implemented the rgb unit from showwx into a laser projector yet. A vector projector, I mean.
That would be a logic place to start.