All I can think of is the Terminator asking for a “phase-plasma rifle in the 40 watt range,” at the gun shop. With appropriate “Ahnold” accent, of course.
Guh. I have been so spoiled by sci-fi. This guy is casually chucking around 40 watts of coherent light- literally built in his garage- and all I can think is “Hrmph. That’s kind of lame. Call me when you have a phaser.” I definitely need to recalibrate my cool-o-meter.
Such diode array is good for pumping a laser crystal; it is routinely done for DPSS lasers.
However, parallel beams, even if focused with a lens to one dot, won’t really cut it. A better way would be using a proper beam combining technique.
http://www.rp-photonics.com/beam_combining.html
Another possibility is getting a neodymium crystal and making a 1064nm Nd:YAG laser (optionally frequency doubled to 532 nm). For bonus points, it could be pulsed and Q-switched for way more oomph per pulse (less energy but more power, sometimes the tradeoff is worth it). Go for inorganic-glass q-switch if you can, the organic dye based ones degrade.
Yet another possibility, but requiring more power, is using a 40-watt CO2 laser tube built in a rifle body. Airplane model grade batteries can give hundreds of amps for the DC-DC converter for the tube (the 40 watts of the tube is quoted as the laser power, not as the power consumption).
Final verdict: pretty, cool, will brighten your day, should be redesigned from scratch into something way better.
you know too much stuff…i like that.
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