Greenie MORE POWER!!!!!

Curious if replacing the laser diode of course 808nm ir in a Greenie laser pointer with a higher power 808mn diode will increase the output power of a standard 5mw laser pointer. For example if you change out the standard Diode in a leadlight 5mw pointer and change it to a 2000mw diode (of course it will fit) will you see an increase in power upwards to 200mw (small duty cycle of course) Has anyone tried this?? I know that the optics and crystals in a greenie are very precisly aligned and by putting a new diode inside the laser is going to make it so that the alignment is going to be off a bit. But for example in the leadlight the diode isn't fitted in it very well anyway so a small amount of tweaking of the diode itself might net you a fair amount of increase in output power.

Everyone is invited to share thoughts, idea's, and nay nays including warnings about IR.

LOL.

I'm looking at making something along the lines of my red dvd laser with a greenie and making it high power. I also know there are a lot of smart guys out there who have great idea's and are very knowledgeable.

Step up and share what's on your mind.

The MCA (multiple crystal assembly) might not be able to handle the increased output of the pump diode; one or both crystals may very well crack or become broken.

The diode is not the limiting factor in getting a stable and reliable high power laser, it's the crystals. A powerful IR diode is cheap. Quality crystals that can safely handle that powerful diode, however, are not cheap.

Ah well. I am into making piles of smoking goo. However I am not into making piles of smoking goo out of my optics and crystals. So that said, what would be more reasonable for adding to the leadlight to or say the DX 30mw without smoking the optics and crystals? 200mw? 500? 1000? I suppose one can only find out by incrementally increasing the diode into the housing and see when you smoke it!!! LOL. I know that the leadlight is capable of putting out upwards to 150 mw with the only damage to it being the diode not being able to handle the output especially at higher duty cycle. I would like to have a higher power leadlight or dx 30mw at a higher duty cycle. I also understand that by increasing the power of the diode also means I'm going to have to increase the cooling on the laser assembly. That is not a problem and I've already addressed this issue. Keep the info coming. I'm fascinated and learning lots.

You will also need to get a new drive circuit as well. The drive circuit consumes a good amount of the battery's power before that power reaches the diode. After inefficiencies in the diode, turning some of that IR into green with the crystal, filtering out the excess IR with the filter, and inefficiencies in the final focusing lens, you wind up with green output that's around 5% of the initial input power. This is the same for all laser pointers.

Thus if you will use a diode that's say...5x the power output, the drive circuit and crystals will need to be able to dissipate 5x the power(heat).

With our Envee laser, the batteries send 2000mW to the drive circuit. The diode is rated to put out 500mW IR, so lets assume that the drive circuit and diode burns off 1500mW through heat. Finally, through the crystals and lens (more dissipated heat), only ~110mW of green makes it out of the laser, which is around 5%.

This should be a good guideline of all laser pointers that are safely driven to their maximum output, which is accomplished with sufficient heat dissipation techniques (not a common trait on pen-type laser cases).