10 Watt 808nm Diode, Max it can be overdriven too?

HydroSean said:

You can use these 808nm diodes to make a dpss laser that's green blue or yellow. After my BDR-209 build I'm going to try to make a 560nm yellow-green dpssl with a Nd:YAG and LBO crystal system like this one

Or perhaps a different approach like this
MgOPLN+Nd:YAG laser modules of 561nm

I still need to do more research like how much power can these crystals handle

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Hope you've got deep pockets :crackup:

@RCB - I've looked at those YAG modules - but haven't tried one. I belive they are intended to be built into a simple liner cavity Q-switched YAG for engraving/cutting but you should be able to frequency double it too. You'd need the correct optics of course, and the correct cavity design.

Yeah I hope I'm not appalled at the price they quote me for that MgOPLN+Nd:YAG crystal like I was when that n company quoted me their emerald laser. But if its under 200 a piece I'll probably get it if I become confident with my research

I doubt that really. The problem with a direct diode 1064 nm is that the wavelength distribution is too wide for the doubling to be any efficient. For the photon combining to work well you need a really tight output range, such as produced by the Nd solid state lasers.

You could blast a KTP crystal with that light, but even if it (and the mirrors) survive, i doubt you would get a usable amount of green light out. Feel free to prove me wrong on that though

Thanks for the challenge and yeah it does sound pretty complicated and overwhelming but the science is there for anyone to explore

HydroSean said:

Yeah I hope I'm not appalled at the price they quote me for that MgOPLN+Nd:YAG crystal like I was when that n company quoted me their emerald laser. But if its under 200 a piece I'll probably get it if I become confident with my research

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I can just about guarantee that it's going to be more (much more) than $200. You may get a suitable YAG rod on eBay for that price but they are few and far between for pretty much anything except 1064nm. Never mind crystal ovens, mirrors, KTP/LBO (with expensive coatings too), oven controllers, diode drivers, TEC/water cooling, mirror and crystal mounts and something to put it all on and enclose it. Plus lots of time spent getting it all working.

It's good to experiment, but for that sort of thing you need to have thousands of dollars you can afford to not have. I'd work on a big DPSS or exotic wavelengths too if I had a house with space to work, space for machining equipment in it (CNC Mill, lathe, drill press)and $10,000 that I didn't need.

Planters goes into it some in his video here - well worth the watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9hliLJjg4

That's probably more power than you're looking for, but the principle still stands I'd say.

Let us know what those quotes say if you don't mind - you may want to be sitting down when you get those though...

Well I figured it had to be fairly cheap since companies like dragon lasers and CNI can sell yellow lasers for a few hundred.

HydroSean said:

Well I figured it had to be fairly cheap since companies like dragon lasers and CNI can sell yellow lasers for a few hundred.

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1.) Made in China by CNI (DL are a CNI distributor)
2.) They are buying large quantities of components
3.) I believe they have the facilities to manufacture some of the optics themselves.
4.) Experienced engineers/techs
5.) The facilities and equipment to develop and test such lasers

I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying it's going to be expensive is all.

Edit: I suggest starting with 532nm first too, before you try Yellow. Doesn't get much easier than 532nm. Perhaps start with bonded Vanadate/KTP (Or don't, that's too easy! ) and then move up to discrete Vanadate/KTP with external mirrors and such.

Great thread, much of what is being discussed are areas I have been seeking information for too. I agree with going towards combining high power blue instead of mixing IR, you can mix, but the diode divergences should match as close as possible and combining high power IR with high power VIS, unless single mode which of course are low power, would be an optical challenge, although not too bad within a limited focal range, I suppose.

I am also interested in combining IR with VIS, not at the same time, but in a single host which can do one or the other using dichros, the IR as low pass through each plate or glass which reflects RGB to produce one of three colors, or combined, plus shut them all off and just do IR alone, collimating to infinity focus. I have all the parts but need a host machined for it. I want to use a big 3 to 5 inch PCX AR coated lens (have those too, unfortunately optimally coated for IR, 7% reflected for red and blue, green good) to produce low divergence at IR as well as single mode RGB. A host to hold a lens that big with all of the goodies including four PBS cubes to double up on IR and RGB SM diodes isn't going to be light weight.

I need to find an optics savvy machinist who can cut larger diameter aluminum stock but might need to use a regular machinist, I would prefer CDBEAM but his lathe is limited, hummmmm. Maybe we could still pull it off with some help for the larger parts.

Well I figured it had to be fairly cheap since companies like dragon lasers and CNI can sell yellow lasers for a few hundred.

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Just look at the cost of a mass produced 532nm to that of the 589nm. You can't look at the pointers alone, they have entirely different standards and construction techniques. As Diachi has already pointed out, you need to take into account all of the things needed. Just the harmonic crystal alone would cost more than $200. The price of a 100mW 532nm lab from DL is $360, whereas a 100mw 589nm lab from DL is $3600. That is exactly 10x difference in price. They batch produce these as well, so the cost is lower than a one off. I have a 50W 808nm FAP-I of which I wanted to convert to 532. The total cost of all the crystals and optics I needed was nearly £2000 (~$2600). I can imagine this being just a little bit more.

I'd like to make yellow too, but if l'm going to pay that much I also want an unreasonable amount of power. What about with this crystal?
High Power Coherent Yellow KTP Crystal Optic 594 3nm "Very RARE" | eBay

Wow, that is not a bad price for a yellow coated KTP. Just need to get yourself a multi line coated Nd:YVO4 crystal. Not too sure what your efficiency will be like or how difficult the phase matching will be however.

I don't have enough knowledge in this area, don't know what it would take to pump this thing in regards to wavelength or power etc.' or know what to expect for output power for this size of crystal. Except for those, I might have been interested. If someone else is, g for it.

Well, you would need to get both the 1064nm and 1342nm line lasing in the Nd:YV04 crystal. As the 1342nm line is weak, you would have to provide high power at the pump wavelength. As for phase matching, I have no idea as the listing makes no reference to it. I am going to make a guess of 1-2% efficiency at it's max, depending on whether you can get it lasing at all.
If I had the money to provide everything else to go with this system, I would make the purchase. But not knowing the phase angles would make me reluctant, because it leaves it all to low power guess work.

Are you saying that simply pumping the KTP with a laser diode the crystal can produce both of those wavelengths and mix to make 594, or would those two wavelengths need to be pumped into it? Apologies if I am taking too much of the thread with these questions.

Yeah to the best of my knowledge I am pretty sure the KTP crystal only does "frequency doubling" which essentially halves the wavelength (doubles energy). So if you want 560 or 589 nms then you need to convert the 808nm diode source into 1123nm wavelength with the Nd:YVO4 of the sort.

Is the only thing which makes this 594nm the AR coating, assuming it has one, if that is the case?