As you can see from the picture above, visible light consists of specific color spectrum.
Different wavelength lasers also have different side-effects such as visibility, radiation and generated heat.
They will be briefly explained in further posts.
Here is an example of what different wavelength laser beams might look like.
Note: all of these are handheld laser pointer beams and not DPSS style lasers.
Important specifics to consider when purchasing a handheld laser:
1) Wavelength
2) Power
3) Divergence
4) Power consumption
5) Eye protection
Wavelength (nm) determines color and visibility of the laser. The most visible color for human eye is green (532 nm), but ultraviolet (<400 nm) and infrared (>780 nm) are both invisible and thus the colors that are near (violet and red) are also quite hard to percieve.
Power (mW) determines the amount light that is emitted by optical amplification. This affects generated heat and visibility.
Diverģence(mRad), jeb beam divergence parāda, kā mainās stara diametrs atkarībā no attāluma. Ļoti svarīgs parametrs, jo no tā izriet stara maksimālais attālums. (Piemēram, ar 3mRad novirzi stara diametrs pēc katra metra izplešas par 3mm.)
Strāvas patēriņu (mA) lieto, lai uzzinātu nepieciešamo enerģijas daudzumu (bateriju veidu). Parasti strāvas patēriņš rokā turamajiem lāzeriem ir no 100-800mA un tiek izmantotas 1.5V-3.7V baterijas.
Aizsargbrilles ir ļoti svarīgs komponents vienmēr, kad notiek darbības ar lāzeriem. Tās vajadzētu lietot, ja lāzera jauda pārsniedz 50mW un obligāti lietot, ja jauda pārsniedz 500mW. Pretējā gadījumā pat neredzams infrasarkanā lāzera atspīdums no baltas virsmas var izraisīt bojājumus acīm.
Human eye does not see every color equally and can percieve some colors better than others.
For example: if you have 200mW red laser and 25mW green laser they would seem equal brightness, although the red one would generate more heat and consume more electricity.
