If you've been looking for a GreeNe, read this.

So, I ended up coming across this auction.

Melles Griot 05-LGR-193-497 Green 543.5 nm 1.5 mW Helium Neon Laser 05LGP193 | eBay

Melles Griot 543.5 GreeNe with power supply, 2000 MFR Date, supposedly *unused*.

$150 buy it now, but he accepted my offer of $100.

I don't know if this is the only other one he has -- he may have more.

BUT - I believe him when he says unused. This is MG's highest rated cylindrical GreeNe, "rated" at 1.5mW, but new, these almost always put out more. I have a lot of GreeNes, and I was really surprised at how visually bright this thing was at startup. Measuring it, mine's doing 2.6mW.

Now, I know, in this day and age of 1W this and 2.3W that being pleased with 2.6mW of green might seem crazy to some, but, if you're new to HeNe at 543.5, understand, that this is rather high. Green is the 'hardest line to do' in HeNe, and honestly, for $100, essentially a "new old stock" MG Cylindrical in great shape putting out over spec ...

Well let's just say, if anyone on the forum here has been longing for or even 'kinda wanting to get around to' getting a green HeNe, I would say, with the above auction: run, don't walk. This is an amazing deal even at the BIN price.

He may only have one more, I don't know (I hope he has several - because of expenses on medical stuff lately i've been a little less err, laserful, otherwise i'd get another) but -- really...I can only hope this goes to some LPF members.

aryntha said:

Green is the 'hardest line to do' in HeNe, and honestly, for $100, essentially a "new old stock" MG Cylindrical in great shape putting out over spec ...

Click to expand...

I have two Green's already and that is a great deal. The power supply is probably worth that.

But I thought Orange was the hardest line to do, then yellow, then green.

I could be wrong, I'm saying that based on the prices of those colors for HeNe tubes.

I've also got two yellows, but I've never even seen an orange in real life. Green's are nice though.

Do 604.6 nm or 611.9 nm Henes ever show up for sale in the real world?

^Not really. Oranges only show up once or twice a year on ebay.

icecruncher said:

But I thought Orange was the hardest line to do, then yellow, then green.

Click to expand...

He might be talking about gain, but I'm not sure if that's true either.

rhd said:

Do 604.6 nm or 611.9 nm Henes ever show up for sale in the real world?

Click to expand...

640nm and 611nm each have much higher gains available through a HeNe gas discharge (with the correct gas mixture of course). I'm surprised we don't see more 640s.

604nm on the other hand, is only about 1/10th of a magnitude higher in line gain than the 543nm and 594nm lines which are about equal. So you could say 604, 594, and 543 are about equally as difficult to get lasing.

These days, your best bet is finding a tunable HeNe. Thought that does not mean that they are not also rare!

Here is the seller's most recent listing. It says 4-5 are available.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Uniphase-gr...723?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1ff83dc3

Green is the hardest line to do. Orange is the hardest line to find.

One has to do with physics. The other has to do with marketing. (Or, supply and demand.)
The two do not necessarily go hand in hand.

My tunable does everything but 640, so that's a line I'd like to see too. (Some of the REO tunables DO do 640 though.)
I also have a standalone 611.9, but getting that was not a repeatable event.

aryntha said:

I also have a standalone 611.9, but getting that was not a repeatable event.

Click to expand...

No kidding, I've been looking and finding anything Orange is just about impossible!

But I'm still looking

BTW, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I guess the demand for the greens helps bring it down from the stratosphere pricing.

icecruncher said:

No kidding, I've been looking and finding anything Orange is just about impossible!

But I'm still looking

BTW, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I guess the demand for the greens helps bring it down from the stratosphere pricing.

Click to expand...

It looks like some application for these green HeNe's is being taken over by a diode or DPSS system. I have seen more than one "group" of these being offered at auction and salvage houses lately.

If that is true, it may help with the cost in the short term.
However, it may also mean that the market for them is going to dry up
That would mean that they may not be manufactured at the same rate any longer

Peace,
dave

Madmaxmo: 1.5 is the rated minimum output. He's probably listing them at the CDRH Label Maximum output. These, the 1676's are still pretty much JDSU's most powerful GreeNes. The 1676M is a tiny bit more powerful, but is multimode, not singlemode, and has a big fat beam, for only 0.10mW more. I have a Multimode GreeNe; it's interesting, but the singlemodes are a lot nicer.

In reality, these will likely put out 2.3-2.6mW. Which is not bad AT ALL for a GreeNe. In fact, it's great.

If that is true, it may help with the cost in the short term.
However, it may also mean that the market for them is going to dry up
That would mean that they may not be manufactured at the same rate any longer

Peace,
dave

Click to expand...

Dave,
I think you're right. Looking at JDSU's page, just 2 months ago they listed their 1100 series (Red) and their 1600 series (Green). Now, Green is no longer listed, and even their former location for their Green HeNe PDFs does not bode well:

http://www.jdsu.com/ProductLiterature/hnlh1600_ds_cl_ae.pdf

Page Expired


This page is no longer available.

JDSU - JDS Uniphase Corporation - Optical Products - Test & Measurement Solutions for Communications

Click to expand...

... Could we be seeing the end of the line for GreeNes? hmmmmm.

2 left, guys, on the second listing.
EDIT: One left now. Hope it goes to an LPFer.

Get them while you can. This is opportunity knocking -right now-. And you know what they say about repeat visits.

Ok.. I was really bad.. I bought the last 1676... I was going to make an offer.. until i saw there were already 4.. So I just did the BIN now thing.

I /really/ didn't need to spend that money.. but eh. Just means I need to sell another laser.

Though my luck lately. it'll likely show up broken.

I understand the luck thing.... You're closer to him than I was though and mine arrived fine. Even for $150 though really, i mean, it's a freaking ridiculous price for an unused top-spec GreeNe. Especially if they're not being made anymore, and, as of like. a few weeks ago, it looks like they aren't. (And mine was DEFINITELY unused... I was really surprised at how bright it is.)

Remember though that those offers also include refused offers. A lot of people will offer like. $25. (Really.) and that'll show in the offers.

is this a similar unit?
MELLES GRIOT 05-LGR-193-381 Helium Neon Laser model | eBay

Yeah, same guy too. Do not know if he'll have more after this so may be good to get while the gettin's good.

The JDSU 1676 I got from him does about 2.3mW FYI which is well over the minimum ratings for them, so these are apparently indeed unused.

Though now I wish I could find a non-$200 power supply to run the 1145P 633 as well. It bugs me having a laser I can't run. heh.

how about this:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

bare tube! he accepted $100! been wanting one of these.
i also bought the other tube with p/s. looks like i can use the same p/s for both tubes.

If you look at kens completed sales you see nothing but familiar names Aryntha 3 times FP, Daguin and 142laser.... I m u s t resist.. or at least find how low ken will go, but i see that our others are also making offers so I am polly out of the runninng...just as well.