new laserwave dichro review (a must for 445nm)

[badger1666]

hi guys here's a mini dichro review , of one of the new dichro's from laserwave
since the arrival of cheap high power blue laser diodes (great for us hobby guys)
it did leave one minor problem.
this cheap blue had to go first inline on a rgb projector this ment more losses
for the not so high power red this was due to the fact the existing reflect red dichros
did not pass 445nm very well well this has now changed with the new reflect red pass green and blue(445nm)
dichro from laser wave so now we can put the red back where it should be (first)
here are my test results so far.

red 638 in @1.602w reflected 1.589w
pass green , 743mw in 723 out
pass blue , 1.545w in 1.488 out
i am no good at maths so if some one can convert to % thats cool.

laserwave also have another new dichro for pass reflect green pass blue
so you can have the cheapest most powerfull last in the laser line up
but as yet i dont have a sample for testing..

for anyone wanting any of these dichros give our mr stanwax a shout, and he will sort you out.
thats it for now hope to get the other dichro for testing soon

edit :

a little update.
now have the other dichro reflect green pass blue (445nm)

reflect green:
power in = 823mw reflect 794mw a loss of 29mw

pass blue:
power in =1309 pass 1230 = a 79mw loss

[sbk]

Nice, thanks for the review!

% of losses are
- red : 0.81%
- green : 2.69%
- blue : 3.69 %

Exactly as it should be, then!

[planters]

Do we have the available sizes and a set of cut off/cut on curves for these filters

[badger1666]

Sizes 15 mm and 25mm available
I know nothing about cut off curves
Ask bridge

[norty303]

I wonder if these are the same ones I'm using. When the 445 diodes first appeared, Rob had a limited supply of either old style or new style dichros that worked better than the ones he was mainly getting from Bridge. I've never actually measured them but they were far better than the ones that Bridge was mainly supplying.

[bridge]

now, we had sizes is :
15mm, 25mm and 10*20mm
reflect red pass green and blue
reflect green pass blue

[stanwax]

Indeed they will be available in 3 sizes for each coating 15 and 25mm round and 10x20 rectangle.
I dont have stock yet - just some samples but stock will be ordered and avail on the shop in the next few weeks.
@Norty no Adam these are different again to what you had - brand bew specs
To re state the new coatings are pass blue/ green reflect red and pass blue reflect green.

Thanks for the review Chris.

Rob

[norty303]

@Norty no Adam these are different again to what you had - brand bew specs

Cheers Rob. Did you ever have any specs for the ones I had? Interested to see how they compare, as all of my projectors have red last.

[badger1666]

a little update.
now have the other dichro reflect green pass blue (445nm)
reflect green:
power in = 823mw reflect 794mw a loss of 29mw

pass blue:
power in =1309 pass 1230 = a 79mw loss

note: found some odd behaviour on this dichro, when i hit it with the green laser, most dichro's pass a little of the beam they are reflecting and normally you would see it come out of the otherside as a dim beam , not with this one it just seem to absorb it ??

[planters]

It is unlikely it is absorbing it, but if so it is even more unlikely it is absorbing it within the dielectric layer. Test to see if the "missing" green passes through or is reflected by changing the angle of incidence. Even modest powers will damage the coating if the heat is being absorbed within the dielectric itself. The bulk glass if absorbing the green will be pretty insensitive to angle of incidence.

I have gone thru a number of suppliers for better dichroics. If the performance of your reflect red is accurate then it is MUCH better than anything I have seen yet. As I remember, the pass blue statistics are more typical and so, I will go back and test the high performance filter from OSLS to see how the numbers compare.