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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Excimer laser head

Opcom

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Oct 19, 2011
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This head showed up, was presented as a CO2 laser. First looking at it, I thought, Good! a TEA CO2, just what I have always wanted after previously having a smaller one.

It turned out to be an excimer unit, from Coherent. What I know is the gas has been removed but believe it was a --Fl compound, the engr. said it was unlikely a XeCl unit.. This kind operates at ~3 ATM pressure, 500-1000 pps, about 5mJ/1, and has a peak power of 100-500KW. Can't be more specific, even Coherent could not specifically identify this precisely since the rest of the laser product is missing (case, 2KV DC supply, dataplate, controls, etc..). What is pictured is the charge/pulser to make the many KV for firing (thyristor for long life in this one instead of a spark gap) and the cavity including FC and OC. The small steel tube is the gas port, the 'hole' is probably an internal boss holding the septum. Cooling is conduction/convection. Inside is a recirculating blower to maintain a high clearing ratio, a filter, and electrostatic cleaner. It is a TE unit with a ceramic pre-ionizer. It was made for very long like like 10E9 pulses. I don't know it s condition but it looks really clean in the cavity.

Well and good and I'm not disappointed but I don't really need an excimer laser, was wanting a CO2 really. Still, too cool to scrap and I have to wonder if it could be filled with N2 which is safer than the other gases and with manual controls work well enough for hobby use. Thought it would be interesting to show it. Maybe someone here has worked with these and can offer accurate information about it. Sorry the picture is sideways, that is what was best accepted by the BBS.
 

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I don't think anyone on this forum has ever owned a working excimer. You would need to post this on PhotonLexicon.
I've been blasted in the eyes with one on one occasion, but that's the extent of my experience :)
 
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I should've taken the remains of the excimer laser at my university I saw in a closing building, but at that time I didn't think it was worth the trouble adding all the missing components and all the work. I was probably right, but I still regret leaving it behind.
Try to get it working, having unique lasers is fun!
 

Opcom

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I've decided to let it go. Not sure what venue for it. It just does not meet my requirements but it is too nice to scrap.
 
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If it still has the cap array you can use it as a nitrogen laser, also you can fill it with eximer gas mix, but it's tricky to get ahold of.
 

Opcom

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It still has the firing electronics including the solid state switch, etc. Nitrogen's probably the way to go. Probably taking it to TEXLEM
 
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You could use xenon/chlorine to fill it also. Fill to about 625 torr of helium, add chlorine to go to atmospheric pressure , let sit a week and run the laser for an hour or so. Then pump to hard vacuum. Then you can fill with xenon chlorine eximer gas. The manual states pressures/mixtures in the middle.

http://ferp.ucsd.edu/LMI/MANUALS/LPX240i.pdf

You can use about 90% the value of helium in place of neon for the Xe:Cl mix Add the xenon first, then the chlorine (in about a 5% excess), then finally the helium.

The laser specifies HCL:H2 in helium, but you can use straight chlorine instead at 5% of recommended partial pressure, make sure the chlorine is absolutely DRY small amounts of chlorine can be made by dropping bleach slowly into Sulfuric Acid. Dry the chlorine by passing it through a tube filled with dry magnesium sulfate. You can use a balloon as a temporary reservoir as the amount used is minuscule. Don't mess with fluorine, it is nasty, nasty stuff.

With nitrogen you'll get interesting output but only low milliwatt average power. With XeCl you'll get a few hundred miliwatts of average power to play with.
 
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Opcom

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Thanks! That is very detailed information and I'm glad to have it.
 




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