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Laser Technology

Laser light is a very amazing and wonderful phenomenon of nature and science. Laser light systems can be very expensive and can produce absolutely phenomenal displays not found with any other medium. To generate a few watts of laser energy, you can use thousands of watts of electrical power, plus a respectable amount of water for cooling (gas lasers). The laser has no rival for its brightness and beauty.

New led laser devices are being developed at low cost and low power needs without the previous critical cooling requirements.
A new century is opening to laser light technology.

Laser light is static, like the light emitted from a standard bulb. So to create images, we need a device to move the laser beam.
This device is called a "Galvo, galvanometer, or Scanner". This is like a small motor that moves a little mirror which the laser beam is reflected off, to change the laser beam position. The beam deflection is proportional to the intensity of the signal applied to the scanner amplifier.Two scanners are used- mounted in an X-Y position so the beam can be deflected in both the horizontal and vertical directions (similar to TV deflection).

We can also hide, or blank the laser beam so it can travel to different parts of the image without being seen (for example if you want to draw two eyes without a line inbetween).

Now we have the power to move the laser beam, but how can we control it?

There are different ways to do this. Basically we need to generate 2 signals, one for the horizontal movement, and one for the vertical. In the past, simple electronic circuits would generate patterns or lissajous figures using oscillators and amplifiers. But now we have sophisticated computers which can generate virtually any mathematical function and output virtually any image.
The software controlling these computers can create amazing images, text, patterns, and effects, adding power, speed, and high performance to modern day laser shows....

Now that we can scan complex images, what about the colors?

Gas lasers were, and still are used mainly for laser displays. This is because the gas lasers offer the widest range of colors possibly for displays. The color of the laser light is determined by the type of gas used in the glass laser tube.

The most expensive, and highest performance lasers output white light. This light contains wavelengths of different frequencies which relate to different colors. These different wavelenths, or colors, can be filtered and separated so we have control of these colors and can display any part of any image in any color.

The color in older systems was limited to only a few colors, but now the recently developed PCAOM (Poly Chromatic Acousto Optic Modulator) makes it possible to display an infinite number of colors at effectively any speed desired, plus has the ability to blank the beam.

Laser Technology is in a continous state of evolution, and laserists are working every day on laser systems- hardware and software, producing better laser shows for the future.

Please sit down and enjoy it !.

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