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DIY Laser Pistol Shoot 1MW Blasts

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It doesn't get cooler than this — a German hacker put together a 1MW laser pistol capable of shooting straight through a razor blade with a single pulse. Quoting: 'Fitted with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, it fires off a 1 MW blast of infrared light once the capacitors have fully charged. The duration of the laser pulse is somewhere near 100ns, so he was unable to catch it on camera, but its effects are easily visible in whatever medium he has fired upon.'" Update: 03/17 18:22 GMT by T : Too bad; turns out it's "only" 1KW, rather than 1MW. I still want one.

15 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong power by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Informative

    1kW, not 1MW.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    1. Re:Wrong power by conspirator57 · · Score: 4, Funny

      panda eats, shoulds, and leaves?

      --
      "If still these truths be held to be
      Self evident."
      -Edna St. Vincent Millay
    2. Re:Wrong power by Leekle2ManE · · Score: 5, Funny

      What he's saying is that at 1MW, it wouldn't shoot through just a razor, but probably through the wood behind the razor. And the bricks behind the wood. And the cinderblock wall behind the bricks. And the lead statue across the quad and the sign over the diner across the campus. Where he would stop for a burger.

    3. Re:Wrong power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What the fuck is the matter with you guys??? He's got a cool, hand-held -laser gun- that shoots holes in stuff. Who gives a damn about "log10(4200), blah, blah, blah"

      It's like a friend's just got laid by a Victoria's Secret model (this is for argument's sake, so shut up) and the discussion devolves into an argument about the velocity of the ejaculate.

  2. Re:infrared? bogus. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a stormtrooper: you don't need to see the shots to know that the answer is "close enough to add drama; never close enough to kill an important character, despite these guys being the Empire's crack infantry forces..." In a universe ruled by narrative causality, ontology is an excellent substitute for empiricism...

  3. Re:Sweet by halfEvilTech · · Score: 5, Funny

    now the bigger question...

    Did he add a sound modulator that makes the PEW sound every time he squeezes the trigger?

  4. Thievery by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A couple months ago I came a across a "game" at the mall, and I immediately thought "A person with a portable high powered laser could steal every bit of stuff out of this". Anyway the game is similar to those claw games, where you move the claw with a joystick to pick up an item. This game differs in that expensive items like DSi, PSP, iPod, are dangling from strings. The player moves an arm with an (obviously inept) pair of scissors on it, which tries to cut through the string to drop the item. It must take many cuts to gradually cut through the string, because I could see where strings had been slightly damaged by the cutters, but still needed a lot more to cut all the way through.

    Anyway, a person with one of these lasers could clean house. The case is clear glass all the way around, so I assume the laser would shine right through it.

    Sweet - of course Youtube to the rescue:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxeAi0v2DrI

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  5. Do not look at laser with remaining eye by Z8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is cool and all, but I would be scared to go anywhere near that. That's way over class 3 on the laser safety scale and minor reflections could do permanent damage to your eyes. I've played with ~0.5W lasers, and those are scary enough. Apparently this is 1kW! The class 3 limit for pulsed lasers in that frequency is 1/3000th as much apparently (30mW). Basic safety goggles only filter out so much light and you can still get blinded through them.

    I would guess it's just a matter of time before whoever bought this accidentally hits something shiny and the "ricochet" blinds someone.

  6. Wrong unit by slim · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not all that interesting what the power is, without knowing how long it's applied for. TFA says 100ns.

    1kW * 100ns = 0.0001 joules
    1MW * 100ns = 0.1 joules

    Neither of which is very much energy. Next question: how small an area is that energy applied to? Pretty damned small, I'm assuming, if it's going to punch a hole in a razor blade with that little energy.

  7. It doesn't seem to add up, though by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Informative
    1MW for 100ns = 0.1J, roughly equivalent to dropping 100g a distance of 10cm. 1kW for 100ns = 0.1mJ, equivalent to dropping a 1 gramme mass approx. 1mm. I believe the latter could pop a balloon, but it doesn't seem enough to punch through a razor blade. My memory may be faulty, but I seem to recall it takes of the order of magnitude of 10^10 W/sq cm to do that. Focussing the beam to 10^-7 sq. cm would be quite an achievement.

    Perhaps either the original estimate is correct or the pulse duration is much longer, of the order of 100 microseconds.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  8. Re:Sweet by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did he add a sound modulator that makes the PEW sound every time he squeezes the trigger?

    He likely didn't need to ... I suspect the squeals of glee followed by maniacal laughter suffice for the time being.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  9. Re:HAN PUNCHED FIRST! by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's actually spelled Snookiee. A lot of people make that error.

    Not sure which is more sad ... the fact that you know that, or that you think we care. ;-)

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  10. Re:Total energy by slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's about the same amount of energy as lifting a 100 g
    chocolate bar 10 cm vertically in the air....

    ... focussed on a tiny point -- it doesn't say how tiny.

    Imagine attaching a needle to that 100g chocolate bar, then dropping it point-first at your hand, from a 10cm height.

  11. Re:infrared? bogus. by stjobe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stormtroopers are excellent marksmen - what you see depicted in those Rebel propaganda videos is a tactic called "herding". Funnily enough the makers of the propaganda videos never show what happens after the stormtroopers have herded the scruffy nerf-herder rebels into their trap...

    --
    "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
  12. Re:Awesome! by Card · · Score: 5, Informative
    From Wikipedia:

    Infrared lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective "blink reflex" response is triggered only by visible light. For example, some people exposed to high power Nd:YAG laser emitting invisible 1064 nm radiation, may not feel pain or notice immediate damage to their eyesight. A pop or click noise emanating from the eyeball may be the only indication that retinal damage has occurred i.e. the retina was heated to over 100 C resulting in localized explosive boiling accompanied by the immediate creation of a permanent blind spot.