Saturday, December 14, 2013

An RGB Laser And Its Applications

By Cornelia White


An RGB laser is that beam source that emits red, green and blue lights in form of laser beams either as a separate beam for each color or a combination of all the three colors in one beam. Through the process of additive color mixing which is achieved through combination of these lights, a number of many other lights can be obtained.

RGB laser sources have proven to perform better than other arc lamps beam sources. While the later are normally cheaper sources of beams, they come with limited lifetime, poor image quality and impossibility of high wall-plug efficiency. This is particularly as a result of poor spatial coherence and availability of less color space, a result of which has seen a rapid rise in their demand.

These types of lasers achieve coherence of wavelengths, a reason why they outperform many other sources of beams. The coherence is on both time and space allowing for inferences. The consistency in the change of phase properties over a long distance results into high quality images that make them preferred for entertainment and other professional applications.

These lasers are known to produce beams of the three primary colors with very narrow optical bandwidth making them close to the monochromatic light beams. They are thus capable of producing very clear images on mixing, the reason why they are getting more application like in cathode tube displays, color printers and lamp-based beamers.

These beam sources however are associated with low level power emission. With cinema projectors demanding 10 W for each color or more, these projectors have to be designed to meet this power demand level for them to be usable. Their level of power sufficiency, maturity and cost effectiveness are the major setbacks when it comes to their application.

External optical modulators are normally used in these types of beamers although RGB sources are fitted with power-modulators for better signals in situations where the optical modulator use is made impossible as a result of low power miniature devices. Laser diodes for instance are used to achieve modulation bandwidth between 10 to 100 megahertz or even much higher resolutions.

There are many methods of constructing RGB lasers. Three lasers with each emitting a particular light of a wanted color is for instance an approach that has been used for long. These visible light beams are however limited in performance as compared to those that are infrared based.

The use of infrared solid-state lasers involves application of a single laser that emits a beam of near infrared (invisible) nature. Such a beam then undergoes through several stages of nonlinear frequency conversion the end of which a three colored beam is produced. The other methods that have also been used to obtain these colors are the combination of parametric oscillators, the use of frequency doublers and the use of frequency mixers.

Technological advancements opens windows for development of a better RGB laser that is capable of overcoming most of the challenges associated with the existing ones. With this possibility, these lasers are predicted to replace all other forms of lasers.




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