532nm to 473nm?

Is it possible to change the crystal in a 5mW green to a 473nm crystal and if so where can i buy 473nm crystals.

I do not see why it's not possible, but I wouldn't recommend it since it isn't very economically friendly. The crystals are what mainly makes a DPSS, not the diode. You would most likely spend around same money for a sure thing if you bought a whole 473nm DPSS unit, and it wouldn't be very easy to align the crystals perfectly. And if you were successful, you might get 1mW (if your perfect and extremely lucky) from a 5mW green.

ben74 said:

Is it possible to change the crystal in a 5mW green to a 473nm crystal and if so where can i buy 473nm crystals.

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You could in theory but you would never get it to lase. The ND:YVO4 crystal has been doped and coated to increase its secondary IR line of 946nm. In a blue laser the KTP has been replaced by a crystal of LBO (Lithium Triborate) to frequency double to blue 473.

The reason I said it would never lase, is the conversion effeciency, A typical blue will output around 3% of blue light for 100% of pump diode input, a green is closer to 20-25% , so the pump diode in a 5mw green really would not be man enough for the job.

Jase

so if i change from 5mw to 30mw true dx it could work

yes its possible, if you know what your doing and can get the crystals

If you get it, I will give you 10 rep points. ;D

I've aligned crystals for 532nm (of coarse it was in a housing made for the laser ) and it was a pain in the a$$! Plus, I never got it the way I wanted it because it was never a "clean" dot. It is very complicated. Have you tried building a blu-ray?

I have not tried a blu-ray but how hard could it be. All i need to do is buy a 30mW green laser and replace the crystal sounds easy but does anyone know where to get a 473nm crystal

ben74 said:

I have not tried a blu-ray but how hard could it be. All i need to do is buy a 30mW green laser and replace the crystal sounds easy but does anyone know where to get a 473nm crystal

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That's the hard part. Good luck finding a LBO crystal to make a DIY blue laser.

Yeah, "sounds easy," but it's quite far from it... To be honest it's not worth your time...

808nm diodes are extremely abundant.  When you buy a DPSS laser, most of the money is going toward the crystal, optics, and the labor for the professional build.  Scriabin is a member here and he built his own DPSS 532nm. http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1206750277/0#0 He might have more information for you, but he's not the most active member around here!

Your best off buying a whole 473nm DPSS, unless you have the "connects".

ben74 said:

I have not tried a blu-ray but how hard could it be. All i need to do is buy a 30mW green laser and replace the crystal sounds easy but does anyone know where to get a 473nm crystal

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making a blu-ray laser is several orders of magnitude cheaper and easier... it's a simple diode that specifically emits only 405nm purple. you just need to put a lens in front of it.

the key difficulties in DIYing a blue laser would be A: finding the crystal, paying less than a few hundred dollars for it. and B: aligning the crystal... like seriously, you have to align it *precisely* in the right place, a few nanometers off and you won't get it to work.

I did see someone selling the crystals for blue on ebay some time back....

Regards rog8811

*Edit, here you go....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LBO-nonlinear...ryZ53141QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ben74 said:

I have not tried a blu-ray but how hard could it be. All i need to do is buy a 30mW green laser and replace the crystal sounds easy but does anyone know where to get a 473nm crystal

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Ben, it may sound as easy as replacing the crystals. But don't you think everyone would be doing it then?


What you should do first is try to take the crystals out of a 50mW green laser, and then just put them back in. If you get more than 15mW out of it, i will bow to you. Same goes if you just take the diode out and mount it back into the very "same" spot. Your power will suddenly be 7mW.


Now imagine this with 10 times less efficient crystals. If you are lucky, you will get 1mW. It you're VERY lucky that is. And the crystals will cost a fortune.

And the power of the green laser (5mW, 30mW or 50mW) really doesn't matter here. Both powers often use the same power pump - 200mW - the difference is only in the crystals.


The very least you would need is a 0.5W diode, and then you could expect to get 2mW out of it. Maybe 2.5mW. You can find a 500W diode in a TrueDX50 pen laser. The crystals for a blue laser can be bought for Snoc i think (SnocTony on LPF). But you should really try how fun it is to just take a green appart and put it back together, trying to get the original power. It's near impossible without a multi axis super precision alignment tool. I machined some simple tools to help me with one laser, but i could not get it above 14%, no matter what i tried..


You should start with building some diode lasers (I sent you the driver btw. I will tell you what NOT to do in an e-mail).

i am going to try to a green before i try a blue. (Thanks for the driver) i will use the driver to drive a cd burner and i have a 5mW crystal just lying around that i might use or if my dx30 gets here i will use that

A CD burner is weak.You can overdrive it maybe to 100mW , which isn't really that good of a pump.Besides CD burner diodes are 790nm instead of 808nm.This renders them useless for DPSS.

i guess i will have to wait for my dx30 then