Latest addition to my HeNe collection

Last Friday after work as I turned the corner onto our street I see the mail lady about a block down the street from us and think "Sweet! My HeNe is here." only to find the dreaded "We tried to deliver a package..." notice in my mailbox. *grumble* As I turn to go back to the house I see her walking down the street with a box in her arms. Woot! (Have I mentioned our carrier rocks?)


Anyhow after opening the box I find this.


2013-10-04_09-40-49pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

A nice 3mw (tested according to the seller) HeNe head and matching 12v PSU. The head is an inch or two shorter than my green head at ~16" but uses the same PSU. But what color is it? I really would like a 5-10mw red that you can actually see the beam but alas I still haven't found a decently priced one.


2013-10-04_09-42-20pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

So I'll just have to settle for this yellow 594.1 instead. :eg:



2013-10-04_09-54-35pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

Unlike a 589 that appears as a golden yellow despite being inly 5nm away 594 is more of an amber color since it's getting close to the orange wavelengths.


2013-10-04_09-58-43pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

3mw 594 vs. ~110mw of 589. The colors are pretty close after a bit of fine adjustments.


What could be better than one 594.1 HeNe?


2013-10-04_10-19-26pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

Two of course!



2013-10-04_10-23-24pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

With the 589.


2013-10-04_10-48-38pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr

My attempt to recreate bloom's RGY. The red is visible to the eye but is hard to see in the photo which is why I want a more powerful red.

Very nice!
I love 594nm

Peace,
dave

Nice tube!

For a 10mW+ red, you'll be looking for any MG tube following 05-LHR/P-9XX, or 8XX. Only exception being the 900, it's a baby 1mW tube.

For Uniphase, 1135P or higher (1144, 1145). The 1137 is misleading, it is actually lower than 10mW (7mW).

Those are your main options.

Keep in mind that the higher you go, the more requirements for power you'll need. For the 1144/45's and MG-925, 927, 928, etc, you'll need special PSU's normally on ebay for $200+. I got mine for $100.

Or you could really get crazy and try for a 35mW SP-127, or 50mW SP-125A. Good luck on either

Also, see if you can put mirrors on both ends of your 543.5nm to really recreate my RGY I want to see if more tubes can do it, don't see why not when both of my green tubes do red.

Enjoy gas!

Welcome to the dark side :eg:

Great stuff but i will go the other way love 589nm always been my favorite.

Wow. The jelousy begins to flow. ill try to be civil but i hate you a little for having something i don't. Really cool though.

The 543.5 in the pic is in a solid backed head but I'll have to try it with my bare tube. I should be able to use some of the PJ optics to test it.


Edit: What type of mirrors/optics would I need to test this?

LtKernelPanic said:

What could be better than one 594.1 HeNe?

Two of course!

Click to expand...

You're up with me. But mine are not 3 mw yellows, One claimed it, but I think they are both around 2.

I love the golden color.

BTW, I'd happily trade a 16 mw red hene for that if you were interested.

LtKernelPanic said:

The 543.5 in the pic is in a solid backed head but I'll have to try it with my bare tube. I should be able to use some of the PJ optics to test it.


Edit: What type of mirrors/optics would I need to test this?

Click to expand...

Tests have shown dichroic mirrors to work with getting green lines from an Ar+.

However, I don't have any reflect red optics.

Theoretically if it's HR@632.8nm, you should get red.

I use actual HeNe mirrors and mirror mounts to adjust the X and Y tilt on the mirrors so I can fine tune them to get a perfect resonance.

If you're just holding the mirror, it is possible to get flashes if you manage to get it perfectly aligned for a split second or two, though you won't be able to hold it steadily at alignment.

EDIT: I can get yellow to resonate with only one mirror, but it doesn't pass through the mirror, I still need the other end for the yellow light to exit. Who is the maker of your green? It is very likely that you could make a dual ended tube by removing the back end entirely. However, if the connection is the edge of the endcap, perhaps held in place with some sort of epoxy like the Uniphase tubes, then remove it, drill a hole in it (soft plastic, I did it with a pocket knife) and then reattach it. That way the HR is available for light to exit, and you are able to use it as a dual tube

MG and LASOS tubes are an animal to open up. The OC end is easy (for MG, not LASOS), but on both, the HR end will be challenging.

Enjoy! Let me know if you need anymore laser surgery assistance

The one in the pic is a Coherent branded head. My bare tube is a Melles Griot. model LGR192. IIRC Coherent heads used MG tubes so it's probably a very similar if not same tube. The bare tube was bought brand new from MI in May 2011 and probably has less than 100 hours on it. I was thinking maybe I could use one of the standard mirrors and the reflect red+green to see if I can get and flashes of red if the green doesn't over power it.


I know you've been super busy but when you have a spare minute could you point me towards the mirrors I'd need to do this right?

I've really got nothing to do tonight, unfortunately.

However, I got my mirrors from Sam. He's the only source I know of for HeNe mirrors. Thorlabs might have them, but not for the $10-25 a piece that Sam does.

His red mirrors are about $10, some less. The "other" color mirrors will be $25, same for broadband mirrors.

The case may be the same as the MG's then. I would need you to take a picture of the HR end (the back end).

As far as the bare tube, you may be able to get yellow to flash with one mirror. Although, I got my red with two mirrors. The stock mirrors for the 543.5nm simply don't reflect the 632.8nm. The fact that the REO tube reflects 594.1nm as well as the 543.5nm baffles me.

In some cases, the new line can take over. This is very true with the 632.8nm in my REO orange tube. However, since the gas fill is different for green vs red, that may be different. Oddly enough, the 594.1nm that I got from the 543.5nm actually overpowered the latter, and had a higher output.

So who knows.

There is very little that is "standard" to HeNes, even the gas fill. I have a tube with 0.5% Argon as some of you following me may know.

Very little can be generalized.