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Got a new Laserglow Aquarius-6 : and its TEM01 .. Is that right?

aryntha

aryntha

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I'm new here, and, yesterday I decided to finally go and get a Laserglow Aquarius-6 and Rigel-2 ...

The Aquarius-6, appears to be emitting TEM01. Their page says "TEM00-TEM01-TEM02". Does that mean it's kind of... luck of the draw? And I got unlucky?

Or is this just the nature of these lasers? It's about 10 hours old right now...
 





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ElektroFreak

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Portable blue (473nm) lasers are very difficult to keep stable. The process of generating 473nm light is dependent on many factors, all of which must be precisely configured. There is no room inside a portable laser for the necessary features to keep such a system stable. The best one can hope for is moderate stability, depending on temperature. Output could be any number of modes over a given temperature curve. That's why it's listed as being TEM00-01-02
 
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Tech_Junkie

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aryntha said:
I'm new here, and, yesterday I decided to finally go and get a Laserglow Aquarius-6 and Rigel-2 ...

The Aquarius-6, appears to be emitting TEM01. Their page says "TEM00-TEM01-TEM02". Does that mean it's kind of... luck of the draw? And I got unlucky?

Or is this just the nature of these lasers? It's about 10 hours old right now...
Click to expand...

Where did you buy it?
 
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aryntha

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I bought it from Laserglow. Specs sheet / test that came with it said 9mW average output (which is within spec for the Aquarius-6, course I would have liked higher), but, now the output seems to be dropping pretty significantly, which worries me more than the TEM01 output... (though, after some looking around it seems like TEM01 out of these is not uncommon...)
 
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^Your power will drop off as the laser's temperature changes with use. The crystals inside the laser must be maintained withitn 1 deg Celsius or it's efficiency goes down drastically, resulting in less output. There is no room in the laser for temperature control devices necessary to keep the crystals at the optimum temperature. Again, this is normal for portable 473nm lasers.
 
aryntha

aryntha

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ElectroFreak,

Thanks - really, just want to get up to speed on this stuff myself, and I do appreciate the information.

I presume this isn't a permanent drop? In other words, when the laser cools down, should it go back to normal operation?

(Or do these DPSS lasers drop in output gradually over their lifetime?)
 
Tech_Junkie

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You said you bought it yesterday, how could you do that?? Also it already has 10 hours on it?? Did you leave it on over night?
 
aryntha

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No, it's pretty simple: I ordered it yesterday, over the phone, calling Laserglow in Ontario, at around 1PM MST.

Overnight shipping was $35 vs standard being $21. So I opted for overnight. Scott at Laserglow said he could get it shipped out that day, and he did -- It showed up at 10AM today via FedEx.

I've *had* it for 10 hours, I said it's 10 hours old, not that it has 10 hours of usage on it. I've had it on intermittently for no more than 30-45 seconds at a time, (Which Laserglow advised me of), in the 10 hours i've owned it.
 
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aryntha said:
ElectroFreak,

Thanks - really, just want to get up to speed on this stuff myself, and I do appreciate the information.

I presume this isn't a permanent drop? In other words, when the laser cools down, should it go back to normal operation?

(Or do these DPSS lasers drop in output gradually over their lifetime?)
Click to expand...


That's correct on both counts. Your power should be at it's peak at one specific temperature. The only way to know what that temperature is is is to meter the laser while it runs over a range of case temperatures and see what temp it's at when it's generating peak power. So in a word, yes. The power will come back.

All lasers do gradually drop in power over their lifetime, but there is no standard curve to describe how this happens with DPSS. It could be very gradual over the lifetime of the laser, or it could maintain level output over a time and then drop relatively quickly, stay there for awhile, and then drop more.. You just never really know. DPSS technology can be very finicky, especially in portable systems.
 
mfo

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If I am not mistaken, the Aquarius is manufactured by CNI and they state TEM01.
 
aryntha

aryntha

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Okay, if CNI states TEM01, then i'm not worried about it and it's operating as it should... Just that Laserglow states TEM00-TEM01-TEM02, which was kind of odd. I let it cool down for a bit and it *is* mode hopping, from TEM00-TEM01.

Can probably live with that.
 
mfo

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aryntha said:
Okay, if CNI states TEM01, then i'm not worried about it and it's operating as it should... Just that Laserglow states TEM00-TEM01-TEM02, which was kind of odd. I let it cool down for a bit and it *is* mode hopping, from TEM00-TEM01.

Can probably live with that.
Click to expand...

My mistake, they say "Near TEM00". I don't know what "near" means but I'm guessing close to a nice round dot, but not quite?

http://cnilaser.com/PDF/GLP-473.pdf

Don't worry about the mode hops. If it hops to TEM02 then you might want to inquire about that. Why would it go to TEM02 if the manufacturer themselves don't mention that?
 
aryntha

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Yeah, what seems to happen is this:

It starts as a clean round dot, and then develops a 'minor' secondary dot. As it heats up, it does go to full TEM01, but even 40 feet away the two dots are fairly close together, and the null region isn't all that thick..

Just kind of learning as I go here.
 
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Laserglows specs are the one's I'd go with. They might not have manufactured it, but it is their system. CNI isn't providing the warranty, Laserglow is.. Realistically you can't expect much in the way of stability from these kinds of lasers.. If it bothers you too much, I'd go ahead and RMA it to Laserglow. Be warned, though, that the next one you get will likely have quirks as well, and it could be something just as hard to live with.
 
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aryntha

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Nah, I think I'm going to stick with it... It's lotto.

I could get a 15mW TEM00 one.... but I also could get a 5mW TEM02 one with horrible divergence. The information makes me less concerned...

Back in the 90's I bought a dual N-cell 670nm 5mw pointer for something absolutely ridiculous, like $450. Aside from the fact of feeling like a fool now for buying it in the first place (hindsight...) I remember sending that one back a few times to try to get the perfect beam, when in reality, I should have saved the stress, because the first one I had ended up being better than the subsequent ones.

I think I'll learn from that one here.
 
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