In: Physics
Why is it difficult to get a 632 nm red laser diode (but you can get a 637 nm one easily?
Why are red laser diodes cheaper than green ones or blue ones?
The process to get 632nm red diode laser is too expensive and also its a challenge to get material which has bandgap of this no.
In a 640nm red laser pointer, there's a red-emitting diode and a
lens to focus the beam.
In a 532nm green laser, there's a BIG 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 light and lases at 1064nm. This 1064nm laser
light comes out of the NdYV04 (neodymium yttrium vanadium oxide)
crystal and is then shot into a second crystal (containing
potassium, titanium, & phosphorus, usually called KTP) that
doubles the frequency to 532nm - the bright green color you see.
This light is then focused by a lens and emerges out . Just before
the lens, there's a filter that removes any stray infrared rays
from the pump diode and the neodymium crystal.This is why green
diode lasers are so much more expensive than red