Two green polarized beam combining-maximize the brightness

[norty303]

Now which one is brighter?

The 10W one because you'll have combining optics (hence losses) in the beam path of the combined one. But at those powers totally irrelevant.

Otherwise, they should both be equal (assuming all other things being equal - which they probably aren't)

[tocket]

The human eye can not perceive polarization, so they will be equally bright. A mantis shrimp will probably disagree though.

[QUAZAR]

With 10 watts, the Mantis shrimp wiill probably be nicely cooked.

[-bart-]

Maybe Seans eyes have a particular mutation that makes them polarisation sensitive...

I would say: turn your head by 90 degrees to find out !

[sean]

Maybe Seans eyes have a particular mutation that makes them polarisation sensitive...

I would say: turn your head by 90 degrees to find out !

it would be much better if audience's eye mutate other than mine, then our lasershow will be much more effective.
A shrimp might perceive the different light but he does not know why..

well, I really hope there is someone who has similar experience can share it here

or I will compare when this beam combining is done. But it may be different as expected. As I remember, a 8w single beam looks a lot brighter than 5w one, but a 10watts combined one does not do that much.. that is why this post started.

[-bart-]

If two beams combined with a pbs are not perfectly overlaping, the power-density of the beam is not doubled.
You are in fact laying beams next to each-other, like knife edging, doubling output power but preserving power-density, doubling beam area.

Combining beams in a way that doubles the power-density both in the near and far field is a though job. With two gaussian1/e2 1mm beams, you'll need at least 100µ position accuracy or better in the near field. The naked eye is not suitable for this job.

Use a diverging lens right after the pbs to make proper alignment possible.

[sean]

If two beams combined with a pbs are not perfectly overlaping, the power-density of the beam is not doubled.
You are in fact laying beams next to each-other, like knife edging, doubling output power but preserving power-density, doubling beam area.

Combining beams in a way that doubles the power-density both in the near and far field is a though job. With two gaussian1/e2 1mm beams, you'll need at least 100µ position accuracy or better in the near field. The naked eye is not suitable for this job.

Use a diverging lens right after the pbs to make proper alignment possible.

Thank you.

What I meant is using polarization cube, not knife edging because it does help to the the power density.

But based on your description it looks quite difficult to combine 2 differently polarized beams perfectly.

If we combine the two beams when they are still like torch, then collimate them later, will it do better?

[-bart-]

I meant use a lens after the pbs to make alignment easier, the lens goes away after the alignment.