Cheap laser pointer has a good diode in it.

[Ted Park]

As I mentioned in another thread, I dissected a cheap laser pointer (one of those miniature one that uses 3 small batteries and has 4 pattern heads with it) and mounted the diode assembly to a heat sink. Coherence length is greater than 40cm.
The thing has a sticker on it that says it has <1mw output on it, but it must be some kind of giant chinese milliwatt, since the power readings I get are much higher than from the 3-4mw Intergraf module. What surprises me is that the thing makes great holograms - I set up a scene with a big, bright object close to the plate, and had the object beam come in from a fairly wide angle from the reference beam, and far away from the plate too.

It seems bizzare that the laser itself doesn't appear to be encapsulated or anything. It's just bonded up, the laser assembly just pressed into a cheap
metalized plastic lens holder. What ever other shortcomings the pointer has (focus lens is glued into place, bad soldering, bad batteries, bad switch, no enclosure for diode) the laser itself works quite well.