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- Feb 2, 2012
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Hi,
I remember reading in some older posts about the danger of "popping" your diode with a direct reflection right back into the laser. It would seem this would be an easy thing to do if pointing directly at a mirror which would be a bad idea anyways. In regards to glass there are many reasons you would be pointing the laser towards it such as experimenting with prisms or even adding different kinds of optics directly attached to the laser.
If 4% of the laser light will be directed back into the laser when shining through glass it might not be that big of a deal with a lower power laser such as 50mW (2mW reflected) but with 500mW you would get 20mW reflected or with 1W 40mW.
I have been pondering this and wondering if this means it is a risk when using prisms with higher powered lasers or even when adding additional optics?
I feel silly asking this but even with IR filters that have 97% transmission, couldn't they even potentially reflect enough light back to cause damage to a DPSS system if say it is put on a 1W 532nm which would mean 30mW entering back into the aperture.
Another example might be adding a beam expander to a 1.8W 445nm which with 4% reflection would be 70mW entering back into the diode. (I guess an AR coating might reduce this but some might use "second hand optics" like telescope parts.)
Just curious what people have to say on this. Is it not as big of a concern as I am thinking?
:thanks:
I remember reading in some older posts about the danger of "popping" your diode with a direct reflection right back into the laser. It would seem this would be an easy thing to do if pointing directly at a mirror which would be a bad idea anyways. In regards to glass there are many reasons you would be pointing the laser towards it such as experimenting with prisms or even adding different kinds of optics directly attached to the laser.
If 4% of the laser light will be directed back into the laser when shining through glass it might not be that big of a deal with a lower power laser such as 50mW (2mW reflected) but with 500mW you would get 20mW reflected or with 1W 40mW.
I have been pondering this and wondering if this means it is a risk when using prisms with higher powered lasers or even when adding additional optics?
I feel silly asking this but even with IR filters that have 97% transmission, couldn't they even potentially reflect enough light back to cause damage to a DPSS system if say it is put on a 1W 532nm which would mean 30mW entering back into the aperture.
Another example might be adding a beam expander to a 1.8W 445nm which with 4% reflection would be 70mW entering back into the diode. (I guess an AR coating might reduce this but some might use "second hand optics" like telescope parts.)
Just curious what people have to say on this. Is it not as big of a concern as I am thinking?
:thanks:
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