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Dr. ISOTOP

Wed Feb 23 2011, 09:26PM

Registered Member #2919 Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652

Why would you want to do that? A CO2 laser small enough to hold would be of no military use - it would be good for at most burning enemy corneas, not killing them, and conventional firearms are a much better way of winning battles. Lasers are primarily being considered as anti-aircraft/missile weapons.
If you want a Class IV laser as a toy, forget it. CO2 lasers are dangerous enough in a controlled environment - the last thing we want are 20W+ lasers being used irresponsibly by people who don't understand the dangers of such a device. 1W handhelds are bad enough...
There are so many things that are stupid about a handheld CO2, not the least of which are the fire hazard and the eye hazards from scattered light (don't tell me that CO2's are "safe" because the light can't reach your retina...i bet you wouldn't like toasted corneas either!).
Sorry for the rant...i have this thing about responsible laser use (i.e. not by Jedi wannabes!).

dmg

Thu Feb 24 2011, 02:16AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

Most powerfull Ive got in a handheld myself is 2W, but I usually stick to <1.5W as a limit for good lifespan.

It just goes to show you how fast technology is progressing. I made this thing pretty recently. A few years ago the most powerfull laser ive seen was a multi-watt argon ion, and that thing was a huge beast that also doubled as a space heater from the amount of power it was wasting as heat.
Now you can get half of that power in a handheld device, and powered by a 3.7V 2800mAh battery rather then an industrial power outlet. These direct injection diodes will only get more powerfull and more compact in the future too.
4HVbeamershot

If your already looking into cramming as much power of IR as you can without resorting to tubes, I would use fibercoupled 808nm bar diodes.
They will easly achive and surpass powers CO2 lasers are capable off, at a far better efficiency and alot more compact. (although this speaks nothing of the power source for these fibercoupled beast

)

The only bad thing is.. they have very terrible beam specs IMO. I only see any use in them in some very up close cutting (A CNC maybe?) or as a pump for an ND:YAG. Right now a good bar will probably cost a little more then a CO2 tube, and sadly will only get more expensive from that point on as you go up in power. This is surplus cost though, brand new im sure its worth a decent chunk of money.

Dr. ISOTOP

Thu Feb 24 2011, 05:19AM

Registered Member #2919 Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652

"very terrible" is an understatement...even FC bars have a beam divergence of something like 200 mrad, and the non-FC ones have a 40x10 degree highly astigmatic 1 cm line instead of a beam.
The direct injection diodes have pretty atrocious beam quality too.
There's an Ebay seller selling a few hundred watts of diode bars for $199, should anyone ever be tempted to make a 100W class greenie

Marko

Sun Feb 27 2011, 12:13AM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Hi guys - now to get a bit of constructive talk about particle beam weapons.

Somewhere I've read that beta radiation has range in air of about 3.5 meters/MeV. If it was truly linear like that then a 50GeV beam could be destructive at many kilometers with enough input power.

One other dubious rumor I've also heard is that electrons will not disperse in air (at least not as fast as vacuum) due to "neutralization" by positive charges around them. Not sure what it means, but the only thing I could think of that could prevent beam from spreading would be Z pinch (large current would be required for this).

Still this makes possibility of building such weapons seem much more practical than I believe they are. Since I've seen pictures of electron beams from cyclotrons spreading up in matter of inches. I also don't see why would electron range grow linearly with energy, more energetic electrons should lose more energy in collisions (relativistic effects?).

Now I tempt you to discuss why this would fail after all!

Marko

hboy007

Sun Feb 27 2011, 01:14AM

Registered Member #1667 Joined: Sat Aug 30 2008, 09:57PM
Location:
Posts: 374

x-rays in free air:

For high energy electromagnetic and hadronic showers, have a look at

to get an idea of the shower width to length ratios.

Bored Chemist

Sun Feb 27 2011, 01:54PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

CokeCanNinja wrote ...

I had an idea for a gun that would spray a really good conducting fluid attached to a high voltage generator such as a Tesla coil. The electrical energy from the generator would travel through the fluid and electrocute whatever you hit. The range wouldn't be all that great, but it would work well for taking out groups of enemy's.

It would be easier, cheaper and more effective to spray gasoline, then set fire to it. It would also be more difficult to shield against it.

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