Development of an accurate laser power testing kit for safety assessment of commercial laser pointers in Thailand

Abstract

Recent advances in laser technology have enabled low-cost, more powerful, and more visible wavelengths of laser pointers. Large numbers of these high power lasers have found their way into people's lives and are being used by people who may be unaware of potential eye injury, resulting in increased reports of retinal injuries. Therefore, many countries have issued restrictions or regulations, on the power limit of laser pointers used for demonstration purposes. At present, there are none of these regulations on the sale and use of laser pointers in Thailand. In this research, an accurate, inexpensive, user friendly, laser pointer power testing kit will be built for the measurement of optical power emitted from handheld lasers. The setup consists of a thermopile power meter, optical bandpass filters, lens mounts, lens tube, and iris. Output power of about 20 laser pointers randomly purchased from various sources will be determined, including evaluation of measurement uncertainty. The safety level with respect to the limits imposed by the US Code of Federal regulations will be also discussed.