Get ready for some big greens!

I love that early morning knock at the door, the one you stagger too with
you eyes still shut... Delivery guys seem to get a kick out of it too.

I had been sourcing some quality 808nm diodes and stumbled bass ackwards
into a nice little score. My wife found me the samples of a bunch of LD's
that tested really well for pumping. After making a great deal with the seller,
and 3 transactions, I offered to take whatever he had left..

I had no idea what would be included :evil:





I was shocked to see those big dirty bars in there :drool:
The smaller one shown in the second last pic, semi lit, was
fed 1.8A and put out 10mW. :crackup:

I have to setup a monster supply to test these and will probably spend the next
few days getting it all together.

I had been planning on some monster greens which is why I bought the 9mm LD's.
However, now I have to get my hands on some appropriate pump medium.
The crystal sets I sourced are good up to 300mW with 1W, but now I have
an excuse to aim higher.

Im already planning an attempt at an epic power meter, but that will come later.
MarioMaster's DIY LPM and a 100+W TEC for the sensor has crossed my mind.

Something tells me my builds are about to become a little more difficult

Hope this works as planned! I'll be imagining Herc power levels at peanut prices for your lucky find. Probably not a hand held pointer though. ;-)

Nice collection of diodes you have there. Were you planning on selling any of those 9mm diodes?

I will probably be selling off some of the 9mm LD's, again once ive tested this batch to ensure the wavelength is good. Unfortunately I have no access to a spectrometer and will be testing by how well they do in a green labby.

As for power levels, im really excited to aim for multi watt 532 with the smaller bar diodes. The emitters are narrow and look really promising. I have to sample out some more parts, but have most of the stuff already on order

Mind you this is something that will most likely come to fruition in the winter months. This lot of 808's just gets me closer to a completed project. Ive been working with the same stuff for 3 years now, and have put the project of big greens on hold for far too long.

Now with the appropriate milling equipment, and almost all the parts, its time to move forward with the project. I think the big push came while testing my 4.5W 445nm labby. The brightness of the 445's is leaving the other wavelengths in the dust.

Now all that is missing is my 445 correction optics, and some red array's, but it will all come together eventually.

I soooo want one of them bars....but i'm sure you'll be keeping them!...next up then one of the T03's would be on my shopping list

I am so jealous right now

If you ever want to get rid of one of those arrays, let me know.
:drool:

Do you have any 9mm 808nm like this one?

Wow.. thats quite the collection of pump diodes!

I wonder how much green power you'll be able to get from the big bar diodes eventually - i reckon it will be difficult to find a crystal set that can handle their power efficiently.

Wow, could you make higher powered 473nm with these? :drool:

ped said:

I soooo want one of them bars....but i'm sure you'll be keeping them!...next up then one of the T03's would be on my shopping list

Click to expand...

You can bank on that!! I have a 60W Coherent monster I will be using for power
reference with an elaborate power meter and calibration. I paid 250$ for the 60W
so its not as if these are easy to come by, especially new... This is only a fraction
of the 808's I have, but the only bars I have acquired to date.. These are KEEPERS!!

Benm said:

Wow.. thats quite the collection of pump diodes!

I wonder how much green power you'll be able to get from the big bar diodes eventually - i reckon it will be difficult to find a crystal set that can handle their power efficiently.

Click to expand...

There is a seller on ebay that is stating his sets can take 20W IIRC, and produce
6W of 532... This is the highest I have seen yet, other than the super expensive
odd auction on ebay. His are 250$ ea, and may be worth the try.

I am going to first run a bar in a large labby with TEC for temp control of the
medium and pump. I first have to see what the characteristics of these bars are,
and what their safe outputs are. I received a stack of datasheet with these,
and am not sure what is what.. yet.

This rings in a whole new set of testing procedures for me
with equipment I have yet to make. Im starting the power supply today,
and will have to get it on the scope before it gets anywhere near one of these LD's.

FireMyLaser said:

Do you have any 9mm 808nm like this one?

Click to expand...

Do you need one with the feedback? Or are you just looking for an open can?
I have the Thorlabs decanning tool, and can accommodate that.

As far as I can tell, all my 808's don't have feedback nor FAC. I have 9mm LDs
that do not have the actual LD, and were used in 'burn in' cabinets set across from
LD's being tested. They look the standard, but no pedestal, no chip, just the photo-diode.

Woodofcville said:

Wow, could you make higher powered 473nm with these? :drool:

Click to expand...

Possible if there are 5W in the bunch, but will cross that bridge at a later time.
I have some 473 surplus on its way, so will play around with that when I get
the time.. So far I have only worked with 532, and will begin with that first.

473nm is a whole different ball game. The setups are more elaborate with much
less room for error. The mistakes will also be more costly.

For now my goal is a multi watt 532... Never seen one up close and personal,
but that will soon change.

^ Sounds awesome, keep us up to date....:drool:

I don't need the feedback nor a FAC. The diode was from an o-like 150mW module, but I'm not very sure if a de-canned one will fit ... Basically I want it to look as close as possible to the one in the picture (pedestal length, die placement etc). I'm guessing the power was around 1W. Maybe it's all the same for all 9mm diodes..?

FireMyLaser said:

I don't need the feedback nor a FAC. The diode was from an o-like 150mW module, but I'm not very sure if a de-canned one will fit ... Bacially I want it to look as close as possible to the one in the picture (pedestal length, die placement etc). I'm guessing the power was around 1W. Maybe it's all the same for all 9mm diodes..?

Click to expand...

Pretty much... If your laser is anything like the typical config in
China greens, the LD has no FAC whatsoever.. Back in the day
Newish used FAC in between the pump and the crystals.

Almost all that ive seen since have the lower cost arrangement
with the LD almost touching the medium, and no lens.

If the laser was rated for 150mW, the pump may well be a 9mm 500mW.
If this is the case, a 1W 808 will last longer and stay closer to its 808nm
rating. At the same time you can get more power in an efficient manor.

The next thing is heat, your crystal set should be able to take some
extra mW's, just have to keep an eye. If it gets too hot and cant dissipate
the heat, usually mode shifting will occur. If this happens, just back off the
current a bit. Will need an LPM for this...

You could set up your laser with the pump and an adjustable power supply
slowly ramp the current and find the best output.. My guess is you could be
seeing 200-250mW if done right.

There is no secret to getting the max output other than patience

For spacing, if the die in these are too long, you just compensate
with anything that will work as a shim. Too short and you may have
to modify the original LD mount by shaving the face of it down a hair.

If you have pics of the setup, post it and ill see if I notice anything..

For the most part, a 9mm LD is relatively close in dimension to other
9mm's. The only differences would be the emission properties.

I haven't really had any problems switching parts around, even
when replacing a 5.6mm package with a 9mm.

Usually positioning is the only issue, and again, shims take care of this.

I will try for a good macro of a decanned LD..

Thank you very much WB! I will try to get some good pictures of the module.

Ill get some pics up in a bit, butin the meantime took some measurement.

From the back of the LD to the tip of the pedestal im reading 3.70mm
From the face of the LD to the tip of the pedestal im reading 2.10mm

The second reading would be the actual pedestal length. I will add
some macros to this post in a while, have to find my cam..lol