Re: Chinese laser pointer

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

This is the first that I have heard concerning the possible availability
of a YAG laser pointer from China that produces a green beam (532 nm)
with an output power between one and five milliwatts. The only
green laser that I have used so far is the Metrologic HeNe
green laser (532 nm) with an output power of only 0.05 mW.
It costs about $400 and the beam that it projects on a screen
seems to be about as bright as the beam of a 2.0 mW  HeNe
red (632 nm) laser.

I'll try to find out more about the Chinese green laser pointer
that you describe and get back to you soon.

Herb



On Fri, 19 Nov 1999 17:46:50 -0800 Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA> writes:
> > Is it really true that visible light cannot damage the eye?
> >
> > The amount of damage that the eye will get if hit by EM radiation
> depends
> > solely on the flux that will hit the retina. UV light is more
> dangerousfor
> > two reasons. In the first place it has a high frequency and
> therefore high
> > energy photons, in the second place wecannot 'see' UV light,
> therefore our
> > pupil does not contract when hit  by high intensity UV radiation.
> So UV
> > radiation is more dangerous, but so is visible light or gamma rays
> or
> > infrared, you just need a big enough flux.
>
> Today I saw a really bright laser pointer for my first time.
> It is green (532 nm) and more than a milliwatt, but less
> than 5 mW. It cost C$400, and its beam divergence is somewhat
> greater than that of a normal red pointer (or else my eyes
> are just seeing much farther out in the wings). I sure would
> not want that flashed in my eye, even though I know it could
> do no permanent damage.
>
> It is a doubled YAG laser from China. Have you played with
> one yet, Herb?
>
> Leigh