Best value & quality Lab Modules

I am currently a PhD student working on designing new diagnostic techniques for disease. I was looking into purchasing a small module lab laser at 447 nm for an experiment. Our lab purchased a laserglow unit that has a very wide (non-usable) beam profile. I was looking at Jetlasers and they seem to have nice looking units. Does anyone have experience with these? Could you point me in the right direction?

Could you give some more info on what exactly you need? How important is wavelength? I only ask because you say 447nm, and most blues in the 445-450 range will be hard to nail an exact WL. Also, if the laserglow unit has too big a beam, then they all will. The 445 and 450nm diodes used in these lasers have inherently bad beam specs. Outside of talking to a company about a special build with correction optics, I got nothing.

However, if the wavelength isn't that important, and depending on desired output power, there are several options that will have much better beam specs. Both 473nm and 488nm are a lighter blue but have better beam specs, for example.

As for Jetlasers, they are a great company and make fine lasers. However, above stated issue with 445nm lasers will still make it as unusable as the laserglow one.

Wow, thank for the feedback. I will definitely look into making my own as you suggested Bubonic... Choaslord, thanks for your reply as well. Wavelength isn't really as much of an issue as long as it's max is centered somewhere around 447, so anything from 445-450 would work fine for our application. My advisor was interested in Jetlasers as well so I will contact them and see if they stock the single-mode diodes. thank again for your feedback. Another quick question if you have any advice. Have either of you worked with CNI modules and power supplies and do you know if there is a "safe" way to turn up the current potential on a 20 mW diode to maybe squeeze 10 more milliwatts out of it?http://laserpointerforums.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

I personally don't have experience with CNI, although many here have.

However, in general, if the driver on any laser is not adjustable, then power can't be increased. Well, maybe via optics, but I would think CNI would have about the best optics configuration already.

Although if the driver were adjustable, it would be risky to increase the current. This is commonly refered to as "pot modding" and usually results in a dead laser. That being said, if it is a direct diode laser, you could try to get the data sheet and see if the diode can handle more current. If so, you might be able to eek out a few more milliWatts.

I have built a laser with the pl450 that bubonic linked to. It does have one of the best beam profiles of any that I have. If I recall correctly, it is rated for 80mW output, of course we overdrive our diodes...
With this diode you could run it at spec for ~80mW, or drive it harder for 200+mW. Of course overdriving will shorten diode life and tends to shift the wavelength, but that's the price for extra power..

PM coming with another option

hak

So I had an idea to try to repair our current 447 nm CNI laser. I purchased a three element glass lens just to see if I would be able to change the mode structure and come up with a better beam. Would I need to replace the lens that is in the current module in order to get this to work? I tried placing the lens just after the laser head and it diverges to give me a huge spot on the wall (obviously I am doing something wrong). My advisor gave me the go ahead to purchase the $77 module and heatsink so I may just go that route. Thanks for all the help guys!

super--let us know how
this all turns out