[anfractuosity]

I wonder how practical a portable laser gun would be, as I'm imagining a laser diode array would need to be amazingly powerful (I'm assuming much greater than the 40W version in the video?) and they'd require a very beefy power source.

It seems diode lasers are up to 60% efficient?

It looks like you can get extremely high power pulsed laser arrays though.

[dhimes]

It's not so much the power as the total energy delivered that matters. So, in that sense, it will depend on the batteries (or whatever storage mechanism they use) as much as the lasers themselves.

[anfractuosity]

Yeah definitely, I can't help but think the power source needed would be very heavy too.

[rini17]

Who makes you unable to help yourself? Say, one watt delivered onto the retina can do damage very quickly. One AA battery can easily supply that.

[anfractuosity]

Sorry I wasn't thinking about a system capable of blinding people, those do definitely exist though. Also there are devices such as 'dazzlers' which are intended to cause non-permanent damage.

[dhimes]

Yeah, we were talking about something really fun, like being able to melt a boulder or something. %^)

[wnkrshm]

It's been researched in the 80s/90s. The best solution was a gas-dynamic laser with a Po-220 (the activity of U238 within its entire 10k years halflife packed into a time of two weeks) reservoir as a heat source.

[anfractuosity]

Very interesting, I'd never heard of a gas dynamic laser before.

Edit: Is it the Stavatti device you're referring to? Apparently there are some claims that it was a hoax.

[wnkrshm]

Oh thanks, I've looked into it again and it seems it's highly controversial. I mean, even if it wasn't a hoax, the design is pretty much infeasible if you need a heat source that you can only store for less than a week and that'll kill everyone within line of sight if its container is breached.

[agumonkey]

I also wonder how quickly damage occurs when using all 8 beams through to focusing lens.