Increasing laser output power

[dressur4]

If you combine three lasers together with diacroic mirrors like RGB lasers. Would you get more burning power. Reason i asked is. That i have a 300 mw RGB and it doesn't burn. But 300 mw 532 surely does. Thinking of combining three heads of the same wavelength

 

[paul1598419]

You can only combine three lasers of the same wavelength by knife edging them. You can PBS cube two, however. I have a "300 mW" RGB laser that I put heat sinks on the driver outputs and increased all but the green to full power. I can't tell you about its ability to burn, but you don't want to keep your hand in the bean very long. It sure seems to burn me. :crackup:

 

[Encap]

If you combine three lasers together with diacroic mirrors like RGB lasers. Would you get more burning power. Reason i asked is. That i have a 300 mw RGB and it doesn't burn. But 300 mw 532 surely does. Thinking of combining three heads of the same wavelength

Sounds like you are confused or you don't understand/comprehend several things about lasers and how they work/function in the real world applications. They don't function the way you imagine they function

A few things you need to know:
1.) A laser beam has no temperature - there is no inherent "temperature" to a laser beam. Heat is the random motion of matter particles (atomic or molecular particles).
A laser beam itself is not made of matter but of photons, which have no mass, thus a laser beam can have no temperature.
"Heat" is caused by a laser beams energy being absorbed by a materials surface and turning light energy into heat energy.

So, it depends upon the ability of the target to absorb a given specific wavelength, or wavelengths if more then one, and convert the light energy into heat.

2.) Read this thread about combining "Reference Guide: How to Combine Lasers": https://laserpointerforums.com/f51/reference-guide-how-combine-lasers-77449.html

Hope this is of help to you.

 

[dressur4]

At least one thing. I am not to proud to ask questions.

 

[Alaskan]

You can combine a lot more than three lasers with dichroic mirrors, but that gets expensive to add several different wavelengths beyond our regular RGB's.

 

[paul1598419]

His question was about combining three lasers of the SAME wavelength with dichros. Can't be done. You can PBS cube combine two, or if you want to combine more, you will need to knife edge them. I suppose it matters what you mean by "combine", though. You could focus individual lasers at the same target, but if you want the beams to follow the same path, sort of, you can't do it another way that I am aware of.

 

[Alaskan]

I was referring to this:

If you combine three lasers together with diacroic mirrors like RGB lasers. Would you get more burning power. Reason i asked is. That i have a 300 mw RGB and it doesn't burn. But 300 mw 532 surely does. Thinking of combining three heads of the same wavelength

Want more power? You can add different wavelengths of blue, red or green from our common wavelengths to get more power, but not so cheap. Bringing that here isn't germane to what he asked, I should have stayed out of it, but it's a way of dichroic combining diodes beyond three.

E:

 

[Skittles]

At least one thing. I am not to proud to ask questions.

Why? The more questions you ask the more you learn. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Encap]

Nice photo of 2 532nm green, 10 445nm blue, and 48 650nm red lasers combined courtesy of LPF member ARG

 

[CurtisOliver]

That's a amazing pic. That takes some serious knife edging.
This is still one of my favourite knife edging pics by another LPF member Gryphon.

 

[dressur4]

Nice photo of 2 532nm green, 10 445nm blue, and 48 650nm red lasers combined courtesy of LPF member ARG

AWESOME!!!! I would love to build that

 

[dressur4]

Why? The more questions you ask the more you learn. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Exactly I thought someone was annoyed when I asked this question that is why I stated that. I am never to proud to ask. I am not confused about lasers but I am learning about lasers. and I feel that the only stupid question is the one not asked. Tom.

I forgot,,, what is knife edging? I wanted to take my 473 nm units and combine them to get more power. I on the other hand would love to construct a large RBG as I am really getting like those.... Tom

 

[Alaskan]

 

[Encap]

The easiest to do way to combine your 473nm lasers 2 beams with minimal power loss is to use a Polarizing Beam Splitter cube (PBS Cube).
A good quality PBS cube 12.7mm X 12.7mm costs in the $200 range and up, see: https://www.cvilaseroptics.com/pbs-visible-and-near-ir-laser-line-polarizing-cube-polarizers/product/pbs_visible_and_near-ir_laser_line_polarizing_cube_polarizers
or see many different types here: https://www.edmundoptics.com/optics/beamsplitters/cube-beamsplitters/
You can find lower cost and quality, new or used on eBay.

With any technique there are losses of power due to several factors.
No matter what technique you will not get a more powerful dot than if you just pointed your 473 units at a single focal point spot on a target without any "combining" technique.

"what is knife edging" ? You have been given the answer already? Have another look at the link I gave you.
https://laserpointerforums.com/f51/reference-guide-how-combine-lasers-77449.html

Knife edging does not combine lasers beams in the sense of making a single beam out of several lasers beams.
Knife edging just allows you to align them side by side. Multiple laser beams are lined up in a row, and reflected at a 90° angle by a mirror positioned at a 45° angle. So , if you have 4 445nm lasers each 1W knife edged you get 4 1W beams closely aligned if knife edged.
Knife edging is the method of stacking beams next to each other not making a single more powerful beam.

PS If you use the LPF Custom Search at the bottom of the page and search " knife edging", or whatever else, you can read all about what other member have already said about it rather than asking the same fundamental knowledge questions over and over again which have already been answered several times on LPF

Diagrammatic representations from other threads-----

 

[dressur4]

The easiest to do way to combine your 473nm lasers 2 beams with minimal power loss is to use a Polarizing Beam Splitter cube (PBS Cube).
A good quality PBS cube 12.7mm X 12.7mm runs about $200 range and up, see: http://i.imgur.com/Nf7Sn.png or you can find lower cost and quality perhaps on eBay.

With any technique there are losses of power due to several factors.
No matter what technique you will not get a more powerful dot than if you just pointed your 473 units at a single focal point spot on a target without any "combining" technique.

"what is knife edging" ? You have been given the answer already? Have another look at the link I gave you.
https://laserpointerforums.com/f51/reference-guide-how-combine-lasers-77449.html

Knife edging does not combine lasers beams in the sense of making a single beam out of several lasers beams.
Knife edging just allows you to align them side by side. Multiple laser beams are lined up in a row, and reflected at a 90° angle by a mirror positioned at a 45° angle. So , if you have 4 445nm lasers each 1W knife edged you get 4 1W beams closely aligned if knife edged.
Knife edging is the method of stacking beams next to each other not making a single more powerful beam.

PS If you use the LPF Custom Search at the bottom of the page and search " knife edging", or whatever else, you can read all about what other member have already said about it rather than asking the same fundamental knowledge questions over and over again which have already been answered several times on LPF

Diagrammatic representations from other threads-----

Thank you for the info,,

 

[paul1598419]

I have some PBS cubes and they are often AR (anti-reflection) coated for wavelength. So, if you decide to go that route you might want to find one for the specific wavelength you are trying to combine.