Why do the colors seem more saturated with solid-state lasers?
If you look at the CIE Chromaticity Diagrams above for all three lasers, it certainly looks like the Argon/Krypton laser should have more saturated colors. But most often, this does not appear to be the case. The reason has more to do with power than wavelengths. For an Argon/Krypton laser, sure there are more wavelengths and sure, the wavelengths are positioned such that they promote the largest color gamut. However, the power level in the deepest blue wavelengths is far less than other wavelengths. A modified CIE diagram appears below where the power level of each wavelength is taken into account. Here you can see that the deep blue wavelengths just can’t produce the same vibrant colors as a solid-state laser. Since solid-state lasers only have one blue wavelength, they are in a sense “optimized” to deliver a strong enough blue to complement the green and red power levels.
