Blue Laser Chat

It wasnt that long ago that it was said blue lasers were impossible to make then a japanese scientist discovered how to make blue laser light by accident, while trying to create blue LEDs. This was very exciting for the industry as the shorter wavelentgh was always going to be very useful for storage of bulk data on DVDs .... hence Blu Ray ! !

The first blue laser pointers to hit the market were 473nm , over £1000 and a truely stunning laser light to look at and these were only able to be manufactured as spare diodes became available from production of miltary storage storage products who were taking advantage of this shorter wavelentgh , however the military quickly moved onto even shorter wavelentghs so there no mass production of 473nm diodes , so prices of these in laser pointer or hand portable form are likely to remain high and on par with yellow lasers.

Then a bit of excitement , as mass market products such as DVD players / burners started being produced by the millions ( Blu Ray Products ) which meant loads of 405nm diodes available to be used in hand portable and laser pointers and laser pens , but in reality 405 is slightly fuzzy , slightly hazy and purple and not really that great or that useful so it has remained a hobbyist and specialist use laser

Now along has came 445nm Blue diodes ( 2010 ) being manufactured for use in display projectors such as casio XJA140 .... the incredibly exciting thing about these is the prices ! In early 2010 try and buy say 1000mW of 445nm and it would cost you £2500.... now people are paying £800 for a projector and literally ripping them a part as the unit contains 24 one watt ( 1000mW ) Blue 445nm lasers ... some hobbyist have built incredibly powerful 1000mW blue laser pointers and people who build laser projectors are jumping for joy as blue was always the most expensive part of their RGB setup , now its the cheapest and most powerful componant literally in the space of a few months.

We have seen them all and 473nm is a kind of light blue colour , 445nm is best described as royal blue and 405nm as purple , its not likely you will see a 445nm laser pointer or hand portable soon as at the moment the units are simply too powerful for handheld laser pointers ( 1 watt of laser anything is simply crazy power , and very very dangerous to eyes and skin )