KVANT Atom Series User Manual

6  44
EN
2 .1
     
What isaLASER?
The laser isadevice that creates continuous visible light energy waves (streams ofphotons that are referred toas“laser
radiation”) with the same amplitude and phase that are flowing inthe same direction; meaning they are coherent – they
stick together and form alaser beam.
The width ofasingle wave ismeasured innano-meters and defines the colour and visibility ofthe laser beam. The visible
spectrum ofthe human eye isroughly between 400nm and 700nm, going from violet toadark red colour. Ahuman eye
ismost sensitive toagreen light ofaround 555nm, meaning that a1Wofgreen laser will always appear more visible than
1Wofany other colour laser. 1Wofquality laser light isvery powerful and although itdoesn’tsound like much itcan burn eye
retinas, skin and clothes oreven start afire!
Colours
Standard full colour analogue lasers use three primary
colours: Red, Green and Blue. By mixing those together
you can pretty much get any secondary colour:
Red + Blue = Magenta
Red + Green = YellowYellow
Green + Blue = Cyan
Red + Green + Blue = White
Of course the number and precision of the colours
is determined by the modulation, stability and linearity
of the system. If the system is not stable enough, it will
produce dierent colours every time it is used, making
itvirtually impossible tomatch the colours oftwo systems
atany one time. This isvery often the case with systems
from far east manufacturers and with re-branded lasers
that are being presented asEuropean makes.
Scanning System
Ascanning system isessentially two tiny mirrors, each
moving onXorYaxis. Byworking together they can “scan”
the laser beam over awide angle infront ofthe projector.
The scanning system can not only direct the laser beam
tospecific, static locations, but it can also create shapes
by rapidly moving the laser beam over a path. Once
a shape is scanned more than 20 times per second,
itappears static to the human eye. Soany shape drawn
byalaser isactually produced byone single laser beam
being moved bythese mirrors very quickly. Every scanning
system has amechanical limit ofhow fast itcan move its
mirrors and therefore how many points itcan display atany
one second and that isusually represented inPoints Per
Second atacertain scanning angle, i.e. 8 degrees.
How far does ittravel?
Technically, the laser light will travel forever until itstrikes
asurface and isabsorbed. Abetter question is – how far will
the light travel and still beuseful? Depending onthe power
output ofthe system and weather conditions, the laser can
bevisible for miles – that iswhy weneed tobecautious
about aircrafts when performing outdoor shows. And ifyou
get asystem that ispowerful enough then yes, itcan reach
the Moon.
What makes the laser visible inmid-air?
Mainly itisthe particles ofdust inthe air that the laser beam
hits onits path, scattering the light. This dust orfog iscalled
a“scattering medium”. That’swhy we“laserists” use haze
orsmoke machines tomake lasers more visible. Too much
of the haze or smoke will greatly attenuate the visibility,
but the right amount will make all the dierence between
noshow and agreat show.
When outdoors, lasers mainly reflect o dust and mist inthe
air but due tounpredictable wind conditions wecan never
make sure the hazers orsmoke machines will beeective
enough. And that’s why we use high power lasers for
outdoor shows – to substitute for the lack of dust, haze
and smoke.

KVANT Atom Series Specifications

General

Brand	KVANT
Model	Atom Series
Category	Measuring Instruments
Language	English