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Any low cost suggestion to get a tunable laser?

O

odawnw

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My boss asks me to get a tubale laser which can involve the wavelength ranging from 760 nm to 800nm, however..............with fairly little money T_T

One of the best suggestion is to assembly a laser system by ourselves, so we need a laser diode (with tunable function), a power supply and something that can "tune" the wavelength. Actually, I'm not very sure if we can make it.

Another solution is to buy a tunable laser system directly, but it's really expensive and it's out of our budget.

So I am writing to ask that if anyone has a good suggestion to make it with a relative low cost?

THX
 





J

joeyss

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Cant you just use opitics to combine a 760nm laser and a 808nm into one beam and adjust power?

that would be the cheapest way.
 
diachi

diachi

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joeyss said:
Cant you just use opitics to combine a 760nm laser and a 808nm into one beam and adjust power?

that would be the cheapest way.
Click to expand...


Doesn't sound like that's what the OP wants - sounds like he wants tunable between 760nm and 800nm, so it could be any value between those two. With a diode at 760 and a diode at 808nm you'll only get those two wavelengths +/- maybe 5nm. Regardless of power output of each diode. Perhaps I misunderstood OP though.

OP - What is the application?

Best bet for "cheap" would be either a surplus Ti:Sapphire laser or a surplus dye laser I'd imagine (Anyone know which dyes go to 800nm?). Cheap here depends on your definition of cheap - what's your budget?

Really we need more details on the application.
 
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Dutch67

Dutch67

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diachi said:
Doesn't sound like that's what the OP wants - sounds like he wants tunable between 760nm and 800nm, so it could be any value between those two. With a diode at 760 and a diode at 808nm you'll only get those two wavelengths +/- maybe 5nm. Regardless of power output of each diode. Perhaps I misunderstood OP though.

OP - What is the application?

Best bet for "cheap" would be either a surplus Ti:Sapphire laser or a surplus dye laser I'd imagine (Anyone know which dyes go to 800nm?). Cheap here depends on your definition of cheap - what's your budget?

Really we need more details on the application.
Click to expand...

Where would someone be able to find a dye laser? :)
They sound pretty interesting.
 
diachi

diachi

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Lildutchboy7 said:
Where would someone be able to find a dye laser? :)
They sound pretty interesting.
Click to expand...


Lots of places - some commercial units should come up on eBay from time to time. Whole bunch of companies made them (Spectra Physics and Laserscope come to mind) - they are (or at least were) fairly commonly used in medicine. Other than that I'd look for surplus research/science/medical sales. Of course, you need another laser to pump it too, if it isn't flash lamp pumped.

Certainly not the hardest of lasers to DIY:

Sam's Laser FAQ - Home-Built Dye Laser

In fact, you can make a very basic dye laser with little materials. Also need to build an Air/N2 TEA laser to pump it - but again, very little materials required - of course safety first, HV, high peak power UV output and such. Here are some more resources:

Jarrod Kinsey: My First Successful Organic Dye Lasers

:: Pulslaser :: (German - may want to use Google Translate)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDJ316rt41M

Here's a big commercial system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epDSYL7ljg

That one belongs to planters, who is a member here and on PL. He may have made some modifications to that one - can't remember and can't watch the video at the moment. Check out some of his other videos too - very interesting stuff.
 
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Dutch67

Dutch67

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diachi said:
Lots of places - some commercial units should come up on eBay from time to time. Whole bunch of companies made them (Spectra Physics and Laserscope come to mind) - they are (or at least were) fairly commonly used in medicine. Other than that I'd look for surplus research/science/medical sales.

Certainly not the hardest of lasers to DIY:

Sam's Laser FAQ - Home-Built Dye Laser

In fact, you can make a very basic dye laser with little materials. Also need to build an Air/N2 TEA laser to pump it - but again, very little materials required - of course safety first, HV, high peak power UV output and such. Here are some more resources:

Jarrod Kinsey: My First Successful Organic Dye Lasers

:: Pulslaser :: (German - may want to use Google Translate)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDJ316rt41M
Click to expand...

Thanks! Ill Definitely look into that!
 
diachi

diachi

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Lildutchboy7 said:
Thanks! Ill Definitely look into that!
Click to expand...


Enjoy!

Looks like you may have missed my edits - added some more information - I've got a habit of posting and then more information comes to mind afterwards. :eek:
 
Dutch67

Dutch67

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diachi said:
Enjoy!

Looks like you may have missed my edits - added some more information - I've got a habit of posting and then more information comes to mind afterwards. :eek:
Click to expand...

Thats okay:beer: Thanks for your help, Ive always wondered if you could make lasers change their color/wavelength, and now I know:)
 
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L

LSRFAQ

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Dutch Boy..
That little town on I80 is not far from State College, where they have big labs with multiple tunable lasers. Including one I repaired. You might want to ask for a tour some day.. The admissions offices or department heads will be glad to set up a day tour for a prospective scientist or engineer..

Back to the original topic...
A grating feedback system into the IR diode laser will give you a few nanometers to ten nanometers of tuning with many IR diodes.

Google "Littman-Metcalf Laser" or "Littrow Grating Diode Laser" OR "EXTERNAL CAVITY DIODE LASER"

Otherwise you need Alexandrite, Titanium Sapphire, or Optical Parametric Oscillator lasers to tune that range.. Dyes work, but are messy and need a lot of pump laser light, that is expensive to generate. Ti-Saph or an OPO/OPA would be my choice.

There are some tunable fiber lasers covering that range, but they are in their infancy and are expensive.

Dyes are not such a great idea when you realize you need a Ion or DPSS laser to pump them. Exciton in Dayton produces the laser dyes, however used dye lasers do not typically come with the IR optics sets, which are very rare.

Spectra Physics is still producing one pulsed dye laser...

If you can stand using a pulsed OPO, Ekspla makes a decent, low cost, one. Disclaimer, I used to work as a service engineer for Altos Photonics, the US Dealer for Ekspla.


If you need to go cheap, you could order a range of laser diodes from Roithner Laserteknic and use grating tuning...

Toptica has some interesting things. So does Sacher Laser Technik. As does Thorlabs, as does around ~100 other companies. Sacher is known to sell tested diodes as well as complete lasers...

Steve
 
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L

LSRFAQ

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DNA EQUIPMENT up in Cleveland, Ohio has a used Ti-Saph for sale. Which looks very suspiciously much like an old Mira I used to maintain at a University. But they would be at the high end of your price range. It still needs ~5 -6 watts of Green pump laser...
 
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L

LSRFAQ

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diachi

diachi

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Steve ... I'm going to have to find some time to read all of that. Any knowledge is good knowledge. Thanks! :)

Would help if we knew their application/budget...
 
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