Look at this cute lil' CO2 tube I found on ebay...

[GooeyGus]

That's what I was thinking... With some HV diodes to rectify into DC. I just need to find some good diodes now. The guy who sold it to me was saying 12kV @ 15-20mA.... Sounds close enough to me. I can use my oudin coil to start it... Although having a built in starter would be nice.

[Xytrell]

That would make the efficiency between 4 and 5.5%. That seems pretty low to me. My 60W is ~20% efficient.

[300EVIL]

Nice find! That is a neat little tube, good price. I have a set of tiny CO2's as well. These are RF pumped.

[cat]

You all talk about how cute this CO2 tube is. Will it produce colors like a regular laser???? I've heard of argon, HeNe, so I'm just trying to grow my knowledge here. Cat

[GooeyGus]

this produces 10,600nm light, which is I think mid or far IR, which is completely invisible to the eye and to cameras. It's basically a heat beam, if that makes sense!

[cat]

Is a heat beam different than a color beam? Sorry, I'm just trying to understand. Cat

this produces 10,600nm light, which is I think mid or far IR, which is completely invisible to the eye and to cameras. It's basically a heat beam, if that makes sense!

[300EVIL]

You all talk about how cute this CO2 tube is. Will it produce colors like a regular laser???? I've heard of argon, HeNe, so I'm just trying to grow my knowledge here. Cat

They output 10,600nm which is basically a beam of heat. The human eye can't see beyond 790nm so it's FAR from visible. The only way you know the beam is there is the smell of burning flesh and this horrible burning sensation. What's really cool is some of the optics made for it are actually completely opaque to the human eye.

[300EVIL]

this produces 10,600nm light, which is I think mid or far IR, which is completely invisible to the eye and to cameras. It's basically a heat beam, if that makes sense!

Beat me to it! I thought you were going to bed!

Here's a video of my CO2 running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deSGne6oKPE

[cat]

Why do lasers and the word "ouch" seem to go hand in hand? So you had better know if the person with one of these is friend or foe? Cat

They output 10,600nm which is basically a beam of heat. The human eye can't see beyond 790nm so it's FAR from visible. The only way you know the beam is there is the smell of burning flesh and this horrible burning sensation. What's really cool is some of the optics made for it are actually completely opaque to the human eye.

[300EVIL]

Why do lasers and the word "ouch" seem to go hand in hand? So you had better know if the person with one of these is friend or foe? Cat

All lasers have one thing in common, concentrated photonic energy. "Concentrated" and "Energy" being the key words here. I can honestly say no one on this site wants to cause any personal harm with their toys.