So I finally stopped messing around with red and green lasers, and got myself a violet one. It's quite shiny, but I couldn't help but notice the trouble my camera had with recording the correct colour of the laser dot. It is actually kind of an interesting demonstration of the limitations of cameras.

Violet laser (405 nanometers)


As comparison, I found a couple other pictures I had of things with similar wavelengths.

Blue LEDs (~470 nanometers)


Blacklight tube (~370 nanometers)


Then just to see what would happen at the other end of the visible spectrum, I took a picture of my 2.4 watt infrared laser diode. Ironically, this probably looks closest to the actual colour of the violet laser. (Also, the amount of light coming off this in the picture indicates to me that I should probably not be looking directly into it; not that this will stop me - to the human eye, this laser looks more of a deep, slightly orange red)

IR laser diode (1064 nanometers)

i find this most enlightening

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

YOU STOLE MY JOKE YOU *******

Do you mean mW? I'm pretty sure that shining a 2.4 W laser directly into your eye would blind you instantly.

Interestingly enough, many cheap visible laser diodes also emit light in the IR spectrum that is much brighter than the visible light that it emits, causing the laser to be much more harmful to the eyes you would expect from looking at it.

no i mean watts - it is just the diode though so the light isn't focussed. I use it for wood burning.

Oh, ok. Even so, that probably could hurt your eyes.

Yeah... I definitely don't recommend looking at it.

I also have one of those


It makes my clothes glow

ouch, well some people are into that kind of thing

I used to have a black light. then something fell on it. Then I had a ton of little black light pieces everywhere!

So if kyle90 is not going to be scarred by chemicals, he's going to be blinded by lasers I assume.

I feel that one day Kyle will kill himself by trying to give himself super powers.

Most likely by blowing up a nuclear reactor with a laser-ignited chemical explosion.

both are good ideas; they have been noted

The more glow you see, the more naughty you've been.

Hm so I guess I need to really up my game if I'm going to stay competitive in the world of low-wavelength lasers

http://home.slac.stanford.edu/pressreleases/2009/20090421.htm