Semiconductor laser came into being in the early 1990s, and several major companies in Europe and America successively produced commercial semiconductor laser diodes, which made revolutionary progress in the practical application value of laser. Other kinds of lasers are too complicated, bulky, heavy and high in power consumption, which greatly limits the application of lasers. The emergence of semiconductor lasers has solved these problems.
Semiconductor laser has the advantages of small volume, light weight, high reliability, high conversion efficiency, low power consumption, simple driving power supply, direct modulation, simple structure, low price, safe use and wide application fields. Such as optical storage, laser printing, laser phototypesetting, laser ranging, bar code scanning, industrial inspection, testing and measuring instruments, laser display, medical instruments, military, security, field inspection, building leveling and marking instruments, laboratory and teaching demonstration, stage lighting and laser performance, laser levels and various marking positioning.
Some unique advantages of semiconductor laser make it very suitable for military applications, such as field ranging, gun aiming, shooting simulation system, blinding, submarine communication guidance, fuze, safety and so on. Because it can be driven by ordinary batteries, it can be equipped with some portable weapons and equipment.
At present, the wavelength bands of semiconductor lasers developed and put on the market are 370nm, 390nm, 405nm, 430nm, 480nm, 635nm, 650nm, 780nm, 808nm, 850nm, 980nm, 13 10nm and 65438. 405nm-670nm is visible light band, 780nm- 1550nm is infrared light band, and 390nm-370nm is ultraviolet light band.
Laser safety warning and matters needing attention in use
Laser is a high-intensity light source radiation device. High-power laser can be used to cut and weld metal materials, so laser is very harmful to human body, especially human eyes, so be careful when using it. There is a unified classification and a unified safety warning sign for lasers in the world. There are four types of lasers (65438 +0 ~ 4). One kind of laser is safe to people, the second kind of laser is slightly harmful to people, and more than three kinds of laser are seriously harmful to people. Therefore, special attention should be paid to avoid direct contact with human eyes.
Class 3a laser means that the output power of visible light laser is between 1-5mw, which is generally considered unsafe for human eyes. Exposure to the laser beam will damage the retina of the eye, so you can't be exposed to the laser beam or look directly at the laser beam.