I think the silica gel pack is meant to keep the optical components of the frequency double happy as some are made of hygroscopic materials. Cheers, Mark **********************
Judging from the amount of silica gel in there, the crystal is probably an LBO. They will absorb moisture from the air and go bad in a few weeks or months. They can be stored inside a sealed mason jar with some dessicant.
AOTF's are very cool. I have played with them in the past as tuning elements for broadband wavelength tunable lasers. They essentially map an RF drive frequency onto a selected wavelength. Because they are non-mechanical they can be wavelength tuned very quickly (>kHz level). Also if you provide two or more RF frequencies to the unit at the same time you can select multiple wavelengths (just make sure the combined RF drive power is low!). If the aperture of the AOTF is big enough you might be able to make an interesting hyper-spectral camera with that unit.
Nice lasers. Jealous that you get 8 lines out of the argon. Both of mine only do 6 at full power. Glad you were able to repair the yellow HeNe too. It's probably my second favorite wavelength in my collection. Now if it only has a 612nm HeNe in it.
The DPSS laser is probably wavelength doubled by a Lithium Triborate LBO crystal, hence the need for the desiccant pack inside as LBO is highly hygroscopic and the crystal easily destroyed by humidity. The laser diode is either pumping an ytterbium crystal for the 1120 nm or the diode is a direct 1120nm pump laser.
Green lasers are quite strange the way they work. I took one of those cheapo Chinese 1mW laser pens apart and it instantly burnt the skin on my fingers. Had no idea they output so much IR radiation! In fact, I managed to put it back together temporarily and align the optics. The beam was 10x brighter than it was before - far too bright for eyes. Quite impressive for a cheapo laser pen.
The yellow HeNe looks great, as does the argon, I've always loved the colors of a multi-line argon head. Sad about the DPSS module, it seemed like it was in good shape, but it was a good opportunity for a tear down I guess. It was good to see you covered the chamber on the DPSS a bit before really bringing the power up. Even diffuse reflections can be dangerous and eye damage from high-power laser sources, visible or not, may not always be immediately obvious.
Being a happy owner of Ar+ laser myself, that relay before power filter section is almost surely softstart bridgeover. Input filter caps are just massive on that thing. I had to do that on my laser supply, as manufacturer cannot be bothered to put it in (and I can't be bothered to go flip the circuit breakers each time I plug it in).
The note about CC supplies is a good one,for a pure/plain CC supply. However,IME,most bench top supplies will limit the output voltage to whatever maximum you've set it at. So,if you set it for,say 5V,and 50ma max,the output won't go above 5V,even in CC mode with no load. I suppose it depends on the supply. YMMV.
Lasers are fascinating! I wasn't actually able to follow your walk through of how this device worked but the technical details on each element was superb. Also i'm not sure how many people have actually experimented with a helium-Neon laser but you could spend a lifetime learning from one! My HeNe laser has a ruby rod in it that makes a red beam, what would make a yellow one?
If your laser has a ruby rod then it is a RUBY laser. The Leica source option diagram that Mike showed had a Krypton gas laser with a yellow output and these are often similar to the blue green Argon laser with a different gas. The wavelengths in a HeNe discharge include Yellow and using wavelength selecting optics you can get the laser to lase predominantly Yellow. Mike and others have torn down flash lamp pumped Ruby and YAG lasers. Just search for ruby, HeNe and Argon to get an idea for the different basic types of gas lasers (there are others like copper vapour and CO2).
Leica Argon lasers. They have such pretty tubes. They cannot take overheating at all though. JDS uniphase argon lasers are bipolar opposite, you can actually revive a weak tube by controlled overheating 🤓
I had a dream where I saw myself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at me. Have you ever had that dream?
A very well informed gentleman on a range of devices. I used to service the the Bio-Rad confocal microscope systems.
I think the silica gel pack is meant to keep the optical components of the frequency double happy as some are made of hygroscopic materials.
Cheers,
Mark
**********************
Judging from the amount of silica gel in there, the crystal is probably an LBO. They will absorb moisture from the air and go bad in a few weeks or months. They can be stored inside a sealed mason jar with some dessicant.
Fascinating tear down and a beautifully engineered laser module.
AOTF's are very cool. I have played with them in the past as tuning elements for broadband wavelength tunable lasers.
They essentially map an RF drive frequency onto a selected wavelength. Because they are non-mechanical they can be wavelength tuned very quickly (>kHz level). Also if you provide two or more RF frequencies to the unit at the same time you can select multiple wavelengths (just make sure the combined RF drive power is low!).
If the aperture of the AOTF is big enough you might be able to make an interesting hyper-spectral camera with that unit.
Brilliant , thank you Mike
looking forward to the RF units!!
Nice work! Eager to see the rest of the teardown!!
This is wildly interesting, can't wait to see more
Nice lasers. Jealous that you get 8 lines out of the argon. Both of mine only do 6 at full power. Glad you were able to repair the yellow HeNe too. It's probably my second favorite wavelength in my collection. Now if it only has a 612nm HeNe in it.
The DPSS laser is probably wavelength doubled by a Lithium Triborate LBO crystal, hence the need for the desiccant pack inside as LBO is highly hygroscopic and the crystal easily destroyed by humidity. The laser diode is either pumping an ytterbium crystal for the 1120 nm or the diode is a direct 1120nm pump laser.
+MrCapacitator Also forgot to mention that if it is a ytterbium crystal then it is most probably pumped by a 980nm laser diode for optimum efficiency.
nice work Mike!
Green lasers are quite strange the way they work. I took one of those cheapo Chinese 1mW laser pens apart and it instantly burnt the skin on my fingers. Had no idea they output so much IR radiation! In fact, I managed to put it back together temporarily and align the optics. The beam was 10x brighter than it was before - far too bright for eyes. Quite impressive for a cheapo laser pen.
The yellow HeNe looks great, as does the argon, I've always loved the colors of a multi-line argon head. Sad about the DPSS module, it seemed like it was in good shape, but it was a good opportunity for a tear down I guess. It was good to see you covered the chamber on the DPSS a bit before really bringing the power up. Even diffuse reflections can be dangerous and eye damage from high-power laser sources, visible or not, may not always be immediately obvious.
I like the argon laser ;) Thumbs up !!
Alex
Good show.
Nice Argon , I used to own one of them lasos tubes with the quartz end bell , mine did 28mW @ 6A 8 Lines
Being a happy owner of Ar+ laser myself, that relay before power filter section is almost surely softstart bridgeover. Input filter caps are just massive on that thing. I had to do that on my laser supply, as manufacturer cannot be bothered to put it in (and I can't be bothered to go flip the circuit breakers each time I plug it in).
+Martin Konečný Heh I know that feeling , I had a ILT 5500 Argon and the inrush tripped the breaker every time it was first started
Nice Mike! The HeNe yellow laser works!
The note about CC supplies is a good one,for a pure/plain CC supply. However,IME,most bench top supplies will limit the output voltage to whatever maximum you've set it at. So,if you set it for,say 5V,and 50ma max,the output won't go above 5V,even in CC mode with no load. I suppose it depends on the supply. YMMV.
Hello Mike
What are you doing with the optic bits from the green solid state laser?
Could you try shining a few wavelengths into the frequency doubler block? It would be very interesting to see!
+Spirit Yes, I am amazed at that technology.
Went photonic induction on that laser!
fucking amazing how smart humans are .... and amazing how stupid we are.....
Lol
That lady landlord was great.
18:14 Wish you'd said that Photon-style
+rchaffer
now let's open it CAREFULLY !!! BANG! BANG!
Lasers are fascinating!
I wasn't actually able to follow your walk through of how this device worked but the technical details
on each element was superb.
Also i'm not sure how many people have actually experimented with a helium-Neon laser but you could spend a lifetime learning from one!
My HeNe laser has a ruby rod in it that makes a red beam, what would make a yellow one?
If your laser has a ruby rod then it is a RUBY laser.
The Leica source option diagram that Mike showed had a Krypton gas laser with a yellow output and these are often similar to the blue green Argon laser with a different gas. The wavelengths in a HeNe discharge include Yellow and using wavelength selecting optics you can get the laser to lase predominantly Yellow.
Mike and others have torn down flash lamp pumped Ruby and YAG lasers. Just search for ruby, HeNe and Argon to get an idea for the different basic types of gas lasers (there are others like copper vapour and CO2).
Leica Argon lasers. They have such pretty tubes. They cannot take overheating at all though. JDS uniphase argon lasers are bipolar opposite, you can actually revive a weak tube by controlled overheating 🤓
YEAAAAHHHH LASERS, My fav kind of bits6
I can see a dot on the middle of the screen /: ,hope that's just some dust or something like that. Great Teardown video's =)
+FelisInsomniaCody Laser damage. I wonder how that happened.
+Forssa1 This laser is quite powerful, enough to kill some pixels.
+FelisInsomniaCody
hmmmm it's kinda familiar.... ;)
I had a dream where I saw myself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at me. Have you ever had that dream?
Cant say I have. I did stay at a motel 8 once though.
PEW ! PEW ! PEW !!!!
Good info, but you really can't record to save your life can you.