Visible Light Archives - Laser Measurement Blog

Ophir’s 2022 Laser Measurement Catalog is Here!

by OphirBlog
Posted On January 12, 2022

As every year – Ophir’s new 2022 catalog for laser measurement covers a wide range of laser power and energy sensors, meters and laser beam profiling systems for medical, industrial, defense, and research applications. The first section of the catalog is devoted to laser power meters, which consist of sensors (detectors) and meters (displays). Ophir online tools…

Ophir’s 2021 Laser Measurement Catalog Is Here!

by OphirBlog
Posted On February 24, 2021

As every year – Ophir’s new 2021 catalog for laser measurement covers a wide range of laser power and energy sensors, meters and laser beam profiling systems for medical, industrial, defense, and research applications. The first section of the catalog is devoted to laser power meters, which consist of sensors (detectors) and meters (displays). Ophir online tools…

A Shortcut for Calculating Laser Power Density

by OphirBlog
Posted On September 8, 2020

This post was originally posted in 2012. It is still very popular, so I wanted to share it here in case you get some value from it. Here’s a laser power density calculator, if that’s what you wanted. Laser engineers and technicians are often required to calculate a laser’s power density to determine whether a beam…

Ophir’s 2020 Laser Measurement Catalog Is Here!

by OphirBlog
Posted On January 29, 2020

As every year – Ophir’s new 2020 catalog for laser power measurement covers a wide range of laser power and energy sensors, meters and laser beam profiling systems for medical, industrial, defense, and research applications. The first section of the catalog is devoted to laser power meters, which consist of sensors (detectors) and meters (displays). Ophir online…

How to measure a Barcode scanning laser? [Updated]

by OphirBlog
Posted On September 8, 2016

Measuring the power of scanning lasers such as barcode scanners presents a problem. A bar code laser beam scans back and forth at a very high frequency so an ordinary photodiode power meter will not measure the power in the beam but rather the average power impinging on it, i.e. the power times the fraction of time the beam is on the detector. Therefore, when exposed to a scanned beam, the reading will be much lower than the actual power in the beam. For example, if a scanning laser delivers 2mW to a photodiode sensor and the beam is on the sensor only 1% of the time, the instrument will read only 0.02 mW.

How to Measure Low Power Lasers (Picowatts to Watts)

by OphirBlog
Posted On August 19, 2015

There are a few different ways to measures laser power, but the most common is the photodiode. Photodiodes translate light energy into electricity (current), which can be measured by a current sensor.

Ophir uses a few types of photodiodes in its PD300 series.

Don’t Come to Our LASER World of PHOTONICS Booth Unless…

by OphirBlog
Posted On June 10, 2015

Going to Munich for LASER World of PHOTONICS 2015?

We’ll be showing several new products in Munich, not to mention quite a few of our classics.

But…

You’re going to be busy. You can’t (and shouldn’t) go to every booth. So I’m going to very clear. Our booth is not for everyone. However,

Worried about High Power (10 kW) Laser Backscatter?

by OphirBlog
Posted On June 3, 2015

With high power lasers, there’s always a safety concern for equipment and people nearby.

(Of course, I’m not qualified to give a detailed analysis of what needs to be taken into account for laser safety. For that, you should consult a laser safety officer.)

I want to specifically ask whether there’s an issue of laser light reflecting off power measuring equipment.

What to Do when Your Laser Doesn’t Perform to Spec

by OphirBlog
Posted On May 27, 2015

You’re so upset you could spit.

You just got a new laser for your factory floor, but it just won’t make parts that pass inspection.

Photometric Measurements: Measuring Illuminance with the PD300-CIE

by Mark Slutzki
Posted On May 20, 2015

In applications where a human observer is involved (for example illumination applications), it is often important to measure using the eye-response-matched Photometric system of units. Ophir’s PD300-CIE is a photometric sensor, and is designed to measure illuminance (in units of Lux or Foot-Candles).