You may have read about truly high power laser diodes - those putting out WATTs, 10s of WATTs, or even 100s of WATTs from a one diode or an array (bar) of diodes in a single package, or multiple laser diode bars. These are usually near-IR emitters, often at 808 nm. Solid State Diode Pumped (DPSS) lasers are driven by these light sources with some providing upwards of 1,000 WATTs (and the upper limit is climbing as you read this). Also see the section: Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers.

If you have your heart set on one of these for your birthday, all I can suggest at the present time is to keep track of what is available surplus and to check with the manufacturers listed in the chapter: Laser and Parts Sources. They do show up on eBay but accuracy of the description and operating conditoin may be unknown. If this is for some sort of academic project with a legitimate research objective 5mW groene laserpen , you may be able to obtain a cosmetic reject or one that doesn't quite meet specs by persistent pleading with one of the laser diode manufacturers. Or, if you can deal with the bare chips, it may be possible to beg a few from one of the companies that produces DPSS laser systems since they use them by the carload, and when purchased by the carload, the cost goes way down.

Most laser diodes up till now (as well as most of those discussed in this document) are edge emitters - the beam exists from the cleaved edge of the processed laser diode chip. These are also called Fabry-Perot (FP) diode lasers since the cavity is essentially similar to that of a conventional gas or solid state laser but formed inside the semiconductor laser diode chip itself 20mw groene laserpointer . The mirrors are either formed by the cleaved edges of the chip or (for high performance types like those that are very stable or tunable) one or both of these are anti-reflection (AR) coated and external mirrors are added.

Apparently, laser diode bars/assemblies of much higher power are now available at roughly equivalent prices if you multiply $10/W by the number of watts (but I don't know for what quantities these prices apply). Check out Industrial Microphotonics Company as one possible supplier. The IMC Products Page lists a wide variety of really interesting items but unfortunately doesn't have any prices 50mw laserpen groen . Bars can be connected in series to ease the power supply requirements enabling them to be driven with lower current at higher voltage (e.g., a 4 bar configuration would use 8 V at 50 A instead of 2 V at 200 A). With individual chips on a common heat sink, this really isn't an option.

Several other companies are developing lasers using a similar approach and systems at many wavelengths - including those in the yellow/orange "no laser land zone" - are now available or will be in the near future.