Welcome to the 21st Century, Baby

[kham]

Need an Ash Icon

But THIS isn't napkinwaffe stuff any more

Not Turbolasers yet, but think a molten hole in a wing or your face would really suck....

[PM2K]

Kewl!

[YerK]

Woo. Time for that underground silo mansion...

[Cuthbert]

Yet another step to our Sci-fi future! Now if we could just get one to shoot far enough to eliminate ISIS instantly!

[Mynock]

I think the most powerful laser available to the public is a 2 watt model, so take the ones you see people lighting their curtains on fire with on youtube and multiply by 15,000 times. I'll be interested when they scale one down to rifle size.

caution-big-scary-laser.png

[nachtjaeger]

Dang. Must have been better than 20 years ago when I had one of my "Eureka!" moments. Diode lasers were brand-new, and I read that, while they were good for continuous operation at their rated power, they would accept pulses up to several times their rated power. So I designed something I called the "PHased-Array Steady Emitting laseR. Each module was ten laser diodes, mounted directly to a prism which aimed the beams at the same point. The controller would direct a constant input current into one diode at a time for 0.1 seconds, allowing each to have a 0.9 second cool down time before the next pulse. Or, you could fire them all until they reached max temp. These modules were to be mounted to larger prisms, etc. etc. I should have patented the idea.

[Mynock]

http://www.wickedlasers.com/arctic

I was right. 2,000mW (I guess 2W doesn't sound impressive enough) is pretty much top end for right now. Ain't cheap though, $300. Also I would handle this with the same care and forethought as a firearm.

[kham]

I see smouldering wood and "eye protection needed"
It aint just a flashlight

[Mynock]

For comparison most common laser pointers are 1-2mW. A good laser for a rifle will output about 5mW, and that can blind you permanently. Looking into a 2W laser would literally be an eye popping experience.

[kham]

Yeah
A thousand times more powerful; the lofo types probably need the big numbers
But I get ya