Ok I am hooked

Been browsing the forum for a few weeks now and wow the knowledge base you guys provide here is huge. For now I dont have much to offer but the ability and the willingness to learn. After that maybe i'll have something more to contribute as i dive into lasers. I have always been one of those guys who takes things apart to see how they work, mechanically this works great but when it come to stuff like diodes , resisters, pots, and other fine electronic do dats it doesnt help. Been doing alot of reading and video watching.

I guess my first question is in all the videos and tutorials building a laser with a diode such as a 1000mw 485 nm blue I never see a crystal or lens placed directly over the diode besides the focusing lens and ir filter several millimeters above the diode. Is this crystal and lens just placed over green laser diodes? The greenie i took apart has a crystal placed directly on top of and centered over the diode, then directly on top of that is a two sided concave lens with a convex lens several millimeters over that for focusing or confining the beam.

P.s I bought the Beast 100, though that is not the one i took apart . Currently running a 3.6volt ultrafire rechargeable that has been partially discharged with no problems and nice bright beam.

Welcome to LPF. Are you referring to the A-140 445nm diode?

What you are looking at is a DPSS (diode pumped solid state) laser system. It is basically a infrared diode pumping a medium (substance) called Nd:YVO4 this increases the IR wavelength from 808nm to 1064nm, then another crystal is "glued" to the back of the previous one, where it takes the 1064nm wavelength and halves it to 532nm, producing the green light.

You also mentioned the convex lens... this is to colluminate the output of the crystals and get a nice tight beam, instead of a torch like effect.

Everything I mentioned can be see in the picture below.

Tonga, yes i ment the 445.

Bob, sweet diagram. Thank you.

No probs! Welcome to LPF btw.

If you have any further questions or problems please feel free to PM me or just ask.

-Adrian

Might wanna add that the nice diagram comes from the de facto online laser bible,
Sam Goldwassers Laser Repair FAQ. Credit where credit's due. A huge wealth of info there.
Don't want LPF to end up in his hall of shame....

Other than that: welcome to the LPF!:wave:

Anselm,

Thanks for the link. I have been reading and already learned so much!

micropterus101 said:

Anselm,

Thanks for the link. I have been reading and already learned so much!

Click to expand...

Yes and where to begin reading is a hard choice,.. so much information it's incredible