Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!wte
From: wte@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM (Bill Eason)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: LASER diodes
Message-ID: <3203@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Date: 28 Mar 88 13:49:09 GMT
References: <5451@spool.cs.wisc.edu| <2547@ihuxv.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: wte@ncrcae.UUCP (Bill Eason)
Distribution: na
Organization: NCR Corp., Engineering & Manufacturing - Columbia, SC
Lines: 28

In article <2547@ihuxv.ATT.COM> tedk@ihuxv.UUCP (55624-Kekatos,T.G.) writes:
>In article <5451@spool.cs.wisc.edu| cad@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Owner of VLSI software) writes:
>|How much current should be put through a laser diode from
>|a compact disc player?
>|
>|200ma is my guess (a friend used about 1.2A and it slowly
>|got dimmer).
>
>I didn't think that the laser diodes were VISIBLE. Are you
>sure that it is visible?? I think it is Infra-Red 

Even infrared light is visible at high power, isn't it?  Maybe pumping 
1.2A of current into a diode made the IR visible (for a while).  As to
why it got dimmer?  High powered light sources (like the sun, for
example) tend to appear dimmer when you stare at them long enough :~)

just a thought....

==============================================================================
Bill Eason   (803) 791-6917    ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ncr-sd!ncrcae!util5!wte
NCR Corporation	                ...!rutgers!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!util5!wte
E & M Columbia   3325 Platt Springs Rd.   West Columbia, SC  29169
==============================================================================
-- 

Bill Eason   (803) 791-6917    ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ncr-sd!ncrcae!util5!wte
NCR Corporation		  ...!rutgers!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!util5!wte
E & M Columbia   3325 Platt Springs Rd.   West Columbia, SC  29169