LEDs - Gallium Indium Nitride UV, violet, purple, blue, aqua, turquoise, green, white. Also Gallium Arsenide and others. New LED MUSEUM! GaN, InGaN, SiC, GaAs, GaP, GaAlP, ZnSe, flashlight, flashlights.

YELLOW DPSS LASER POINTER
This is a long page with at least 23 images on it; dial-up users please allow for plenty of load time.
You have no chance to survive make your time.

Yellow DPSS Laser Pointer, retail $199.00*
Manufactured by (unknown)
Last updated 03-01-11

(In reference to the small box I received from a website fan at 4:44pm PST on 02-18-11):
{sung like the Foreigner song "Feels Like the First Time"}

This is a yellow SFDPSS (sum frequency diode pumped solid state) laser pointer that is designed to output 5mW (but actually outputs just over 0.9mW). It is made primarily from brass, covered with what I believe is a black baked enamel finish. It also has a gold-colored tailcap, bezel, ring around the barrel, and pocket clip -- these accents look very nice (classy!) on this laser pointer.

* The sender said that this is the amount he paid for it on Ebay in early-2011.

SIZE

Feed the laser pointer a pair of AAA cells (see below; the batteries are very likely included), and then you'll be ready to rock.

To use the laser pointer, just aim it at something you wish to point out, and press & hold the button on the barrel. Release the button to turn the laser pointer back off.

To change the batteries in this laser, unscrew the tailcap, and set it aside.

Tip the used AAA cells out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of, recycle, or recharge them as you see fit. Please do not under any circumstances flush them down a toliet or throw them into a salmon-filled stream or those tree-huggers might hunt you down and then beat the living tweedle out of you.

Insert two new AAA cells into the barrel, flat-end (-) negative first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most flashlights, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the tailcap back on, and be done with it.

Current usage measures 472.0mA on my DMM's 4A scale.

This is a laser pointer, not a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toliet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my housemate's citty kats

go to the litterbox on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a large claw hammer in order to smash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again

- candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoñata is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be a bit more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

In a 593.5nm yellow DPSS laser (pointer or larger size), there's a BIG near-infrared laser diode that generates laser light at 808nm, this is fired into a crystal containing the rare-earth element "neodymium". This crystal takes the 808nm infrared laser light and lases at 1,064 and 1,342nm (yes, deeper in the infrared!). This laser light comes out of the Nd:YV04 (neodymium yttrium vanadium oxide) crystal and is then shot into a second crystal (containing potassium, titanium, & phosphorus, usually called KTP) that roughly doubles the frequency to 593.5nm - the bright orangish yellow color you see. This light is then collimated (focused) by a lens and emerges out the laser's "business end". Just before the lens, there's a filter that removes any stray NIR (near-infrared) and IR (infrared) radiation from the pump diode and the neodymium crystal. You don't want that stuff in your yellow beam, trust me.

From a laser engineer who emailed me about this laser, comes the following text:

The technology behind the yellow laser is a bit more involved than in the green laser, involving a process called sum frequency generation. It uses the same components that the green laser has, but the coatings are much different.

There are two particular "tricks" in making a sum frequency laser. The first is to get a single laser crystal (the Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4) to lase simultaneously at two different wavelengths, both 1064 nm and 1342 nm. While we do this with gas lasers (Argon and Krypton) frequently, this is pretty rare with solid state. The relative powers of the two have to be in a reasonable range for the sum frequency process to work. The two waves are introduced in to the KTP crystal, which generates the 593.5nm output.

This is why yellow DPSS lasers are so much more expensive than red diode lasers. Lots of itty bitty parts, and they all need to be very carefully aligned by hand. If the polarisation is "off", one or both crystals need to be turned.
With red diode lasers, you just slap in the diode and slap a lens in front of it.

This laser is not water-resistant, so please be extra careful when using it around sinks, tubs, toliets, fishtanks, pet water bowls, or other places where water or water-like liquids might be found. And you'll probably want to cover it up or otherwise get rid of it (such as by putting it in a pocket or bag) if you need to carry it in rainy or snowy weather.

This is a CDRH Class II laser device (measures 0.9875mW) although it's labelled as a CDRH Class IIIa laser.

Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
Measures 0.9875mW on a Sper Scientific Pocket Laser Power Meter # 840011.

Beam photograph on a wall at ~10 feet.

Those colored graphics that you see toward the left are my "Viva Piñata" posters, and that clock near the left-center that looks like it's made from wood is my Wooden Wall Clock.
You should also be able to see two Digimon plush (Greymon almost
directly below the clock, and Calumon to the left of the clock).

Spectrographic analysis of this laser.

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 583.50nm and 603.50nm to pinpoint wavelength; which appears to be 594.92nm.

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between
800nm and 820nm and sensitivity was enhanced to show the total lack of NIR emission from the pump diode. Actually, I hosed down that spectrometer quite thoroughly and still found no NIR line from the pump diode in this laser pointer!

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's input deliberately "overloaded" to show emission at 532nm and 671nm. Yellow laser line at 593.5nm was removed post-test because if I left it in place, it was so broad (due entirely to spectrometer overload) it didn't even look like a laser line -- its apparent spectral line width was at least 100nm at the baseline!!!

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 800nm and 820nm, spectrometer's sensor was hosed down thoroughly, and the laser's IR filter was removed before I could detect the 810nm laser line from the pump diode. This laser is not designed to be used without the IR filter, so this weak emission is really of no major concern.

USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

ProMetric analysis

Beam cross-sectional analysis.

Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was loaned to me & sent by a fan of the website and was received at 4:44pm PST on 02-18-11 (or "18 Feb 2011" or even "Feb 18 Twenty Double Sticks" if you prefer).

Since they wanted it back rather quickly, I sent it back shortly after writing this eval. and have appended the dreadful "

" icon to its listings on this website to denote the fact that I no longer have it available for additional comparisons or analyses.

UPDATE: 02-28-11
It has been confirmed that this is indeed a Rigel Yellow DPSS Laser Pointer from Laserglow Technologies.

PROS:
Has a hefty, "not cheap" feel
Nice beam quality -- beam is exceptionally clean with no unwanted "nasties" (artifacts) in it
Uses batteries that are common and relatively inexpen$ive

CONS:
Not waterproof or submersible - but most pointers aren't. Will not figure into my rating
More delicate than directly-injected diode laser pointers/pointers. Again, will not figure into my rating
Power output is a bit on the low side - this is what nocked that last ½ star off

Unknown

Yellow SFDPSS laser pointer

SFDPSS laser

Very narrow spot

Momentary pushbutton on/off on barrel

Brass

Metal; collimating lens inset into a hosel for it

2x AAA cells

472.0mA

Very light splatter-resistance at maximum

NO WAY HOZAY!!!

Unknown; but probably at least two AAA cells; possibly a presentation case

154mm L x 14mm D (not incl. power button)

Not equipped to weigh

Not known; though very probably China

Unknown

Yellow DPSS Laser Pointer *

Do you manufacture or sell an LED flashlight, task light, utility light, or module of some kind? Want to see it tested by a real person, under real working conditions? Do you then want to see how your light did? If you have a sample available for this type of real-world, real-time testing, please contact me at ledmuseum@gmail.com.

Please visit this web page for contact information.

Unsolicited flashlights, LEDs, and other products appearing in the mail are welcome, and it will automatically be assumed that you sent it in order to have it tested and evaluated for this site.
Be sure to include contact info or your company website's URL so visitors here will know where to purchase your product.

WHITE 5500-6500K InGaN+phosphor 
ULTRAVIOLET 370-390nm GaN 
BLUE 430nm GaN+SiC
BLUE 450 and 473nm InGaN
BLUE Silicon Carbide
TURQUOISE 495-505nm InGaN
GREEN 525nm InGaN 
YELLOW-GREEN 555-575mn GaAsP & related
YELLOW 585-595nm
AMBER 595-605nm
ORANGE 605-620nm
ORANGISH-RED 620-635nm
RED 640-700nm
INFRARED 700-1300nm
True RGB Full Color LED
Spider (Pirrahna) LEDs
SMD LEDs
True violet (400-418nm) LEDs
Agilent Barracuda & Prometheus LEDs
Oddball & Miscellaneous LEDs
Programmable RGB LED modules / fixtures
Where to buy these LEDs 
Links to other LED-related websites
The World's First Virtual LED Museum
Legal horse puckey, etc.
RETURN TO OPENING/MAIN PAGE

LEDSaurus (on-site LED Mini Mart)

This page is a frame from a website.
If you arrived on this page through an outside link,you can get the "full meal deal" by clicking here.