- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
- Messages
- 2,917
- Points
- 113
I don't remember when, but I mentioned somewhere that I had some of the smallest HeNe gas laser tubes you can get, and so I finally went and took pics. All of these use a 68K ballast resistor.
First off a is the pretty much the smallest tube you can get today. It's a new tube, and it's possibly produced by melles griot for laser devices for use in old holographic gunsight prototypes. It has a very large cathode for long life times (for a small tube) and to keep the temperature down, as well as to help absorb shock against the tube walls. It is 115mm long and 15mm wide, running at about 1KV at somewhere between 3-3.8mA I haven't found its optimum yet. output is about .41mW of 632.8nm @ 3.7mA.
The next is the famous 05-LHR-001 by Melles Griot! hailed as the smallest of the Helium Neon lasers widely available, there appears to be a discrepancy, I've heard of two tubes that have this number, but are totally different, so apparently this model has undergone a revision to make it more modern at some point? the original is a micro tube much like the LD one above, but has no cathode can, just an aluminum stub, and is sectioned off about a third of the way down. its rated for non-continuous operation, for a barcode scanner.
This one that I have is a bit wider and a tad longer, sitting at 145mm long and 20mm in diameter. It was born September of 1992, and still works great, with a staggering 1.3-1.4mW from such a tiny tube! This thing is quite a beast, as its only rated to do about 0.4mW. Also, surprisingly, for a MG tube, it also lacks a getter electrode and outputs out the anode end, instead of the cathode. Output is 632.8nm also @ TEM00, running at 1400VDC @3.8mA, with an 8KV start.
Which, leads me to the next one...The other orange tube I've been hiding. it is the same as the above LHR-001, the LOR-006 has the same structure as its sister tube, but a slightly wider bore likely, and it does have a getter, likely to help ensure purity. It is supposed to be a multi-mode tube, but this one doesn't seem to be. It's rather Gaussian TEM00, running at the same power and specs as its sister tube-1400VDC @ 3.8mA, with an 8KV start. This is quite possibly the smallest 611.9nm tube in existence, sitting on a strong .5mW of orange.
and at last...a pic of the whole group, with a white artist's eraser for some size comparison. (and to keep the rascally LD tube from running away and falling off my desk.
)
Hope you all enjoyed!
First off a is the pretty much the smallest tube you can get today. It's a new tube, and it's possibly produced by melles griot for laser devices for use in old holographic gunsight prototypes. It has a very large cathode for long life times (for a small tube) and to keep the temperature down, as well as to help absorb shock against the tube walls. It is 115mm long and 15mm wide, running at about 1KV at somewhere between 3-3.8mA I haven't found its optimum yet. output is about .41mW of 632.8nm @ 3.7mA.
The next is the famous 05-LHR-001 by Melles Griot! hailed as the smallest of the Helium Neon lasers widely available, there appears to be a discrepancy, I've heard of two tubes that have this number, but are totally different, so apparently this model has undergone a revision to make it more modern at some point? the original is a micro tube much like the LD one above, but has no cathode can, just an aluminum stub, and is sectioned off about a third of the way down. its rated for non-continuous operation, for a barcode scanner.
This one that I have is a bit wider and a tad longer, sitting at 145mm long and 20mm in diameter. It was born September of 1992, and still works great, with a staggering 1.3-1.4mW from such a tiny tube! This thing is quite a beast, as its only rated to do about 0.4mW. Also, surprisingly, for a MG tube, it also lacks a getter electrode and outputs out the anode end, instead of the cathode. Output is 632.8nm also @ TEM00, running at 1400VDC @3.8mA, with an 8KV start.
Which, leads me to the next one...The other orange tube I've been hiding. it is the same as the above LHR-001, the LOR-006 has the same structure as its sister tube, but a slightly wider bore likely, and it does have a getter, likely to help ensure purity. It is supposed to be a multi-mode tube, but this one doesn't seem to be. It's rather Gaussian TEM00, running at the same power and specs as its sister tube-1400VDC @ 3.8mA, with an 8KV start. This is quite possibly the smallest 611.9nm tube in existence, sitting on a strong .5mW of orange.
and at last...a pic of the whole group, with a white artist's eraser for some size comparison. (and to keep the rascally LD tube from running away and falling off my desk.
)
Hope you all enjoyed!
Last edited:
