Laser Designators: How They Work and What the 1535 nm Source Contributes
Most designator enquiries we get are really about one component: the source. The gimbal, the seeker and the coding belong to whoever owns the system. So this is written from the source side.
Designation, ranging and illumination get bundled into one word, and they shouldn't. Designation wants joules on a spot. Ranging wants nanoseconds of timing. Illumination wants average power across a field. A payload can do two of those through one aperture, but the source specifications pull in different directions, and "designator" on its own doesn't tell us which one you're buying.
1064 or 1535
If your seeker is Nd:YAG, stay at 1064 nm. Most legacy hardware is, and there's no reason to change the band mid-programme.
1535 nm buys eye safety. Er:Yb glass puts more joules inside the same laser class, and you pay for it. Gain per unit volume is lower, so a compact package yields less energy. Repetition rate is capped by how fast the glass sheds heat, not by the driver. We publish 1–10 Hz on the compact units and 1–5 Hz once you reach millijoules. That's the medium talking.
What the energy costs
100 µJ to 900 µJ lives between 7 g and 18 g. Two millijoules and up lives between 105 g and 220 g. There is no small 10 mJ source, because the energy sits in gain volume and gain volume has mass.
Beam
Divergence is distance turned into spot size. At 2 mrad the spot grows 2 m per kilometre; at 4 mrad, four. Our compact models specify 7–8 mrad and the millijoule blocks 4 mrad, but what you actually get is set by your window, not by ours.
Sizing one
Tell us the job, the energy you need at the target and against what, the band your seeker needs, the rate and coding, the aperture you can carry, the current you have available, and the class the finished product has to meet. With those we can answer yes or no. Without them we're guessing, and so are you.
Talk to us directly: WhatsApp +86 133 0819 5797 (message opens with the application line prefilled) or email Taylor@erdimail.com.