Giant Ruby Laser Fun

styropyro · Dec 15, 2017

I finally decided to post some footage of my huge ruby laser. The rod is a very large 1/2" diameter by 6.1" crystal and I'm using a large helical lamp running at about 13kJ per shot for the video. Considering all of the exposed high voltage contacts, this laser is really scary to use...lol. I learned a ton by doing this project, and in fact when I first wanted to build a ruby laser I knew next to nothing about the physics of how a laser worked. I started by reading Solid State Laser Engineering by Koechner, and I learned a bunch about the theory of a laser, as well as designing a ruby laser.

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

Alaskan · Dec 15, 2017

NICE, thank you.

Nexgen · Dec 15, 2017

Awesome video styropyro, I’m really enjoying all of your videos, and the way you make them, the explanations you give are outstanding! Keep posting your videos :yh:

BTW, what safety glasses do you use against this monster?

diachi · Dec 15, 2017

Excellent video Styro!

Now what you need is a high speed camera. I'd love to see a video of this recorded at 20,000fps!

Benm · Dec 16, 2017

High speed would be cool indeed, and you'd need pretty high speed as well to capture the laser pulse over several frames as well.

I hope the new lenses will stand up to the job though, so we can actually see what this laser does to various objects instead of blowing out it's own focussing lens

paul1598419 · Dec 16, 2017

Wow, styropyro. That was a great video. I am envious at your ability to get these mirrors made for you, much less the lenses. I would love to do a scaled down project like this to use for portrait holography. If I ever get to the point where it looks doable, I'll have to search for mirrors on the surplus market. + rep for an awesome video.

RedCowboy · Dec 16, 2017

Cool project, these always make me think about what crystals can be laser diode pumped, I've seen those 100W coherent doughnuts for sale and thought they look like something used to pump a crystal, here's one with someone holding a crystal inside.

I understand the trade of power for beam quality, I wonder what's possible in the visible range.

diachi · Dec 16, 2017

RedCowboy said:
Cool project, these always make me think about what crystals can be laser diode pumped, I've seen those 100W coherent doughnuts for sale and thought they look like something used to pump a crystal, here's one with someone holding a crystal inside.

I understand the trade of power for beam quality, I wonder what's possible in the visible range.

Those arrays are indeed used to pump gain crystals.

The Coherent Avia uses several of them.

The holes are channels for water cooling.

Images courtesy of krazerlasers.com.

ultimatekaiser · Dec 16, 2017

I got some cool stuff to post too, but it'll have to wait as i haven't got pictures uploaded yet

Atomicrox · Dec 16, 2017

Man, that's insane!
Did you try air breakdown with it?

styropyro · Dec 16, 2017

Nexgen said:
Awesome video styropyro, I’m really enjoying all of your videos, and the way you make them, the explanations you give are outstanding! Keep posting your videos :yh:

BTW, what safety glasses do you use against this monster?

I have goggles I've bought on eBay, but honestly my eyes are never open when it fires. The flashlamp is partially exposed and would be damaging by itself. Glad you like the vids BTW!

diachi said:
Those arrays are indeed used to pump gain crystals.

The Coherent Avia uses several of them.

The holes are channels for water cooling.

Images courtesy of krazerlasers.com.

Those are some s3xy pumping cavities.

Atomicrox said:
Man, that's insane!
Did you try air breakdown with it?

Not yet because my lenses kept shattering. I'll try it again soon, I did some calculations and it should be possible even though it's not Q-switched. I plan on Q-switching it at some point and then air breakdown should be easy.

RedCowboy · Dec 16, 2017

diachi, great pics, I notice the grooves for the O-Rings on both sides of the coolant holes now, I am holding out for bigger direct diode options, but those stacked doughnuts look so cool. :kewlpics:

Styro, I am hoping to see your new lens hold up for some awesome zaps.

Andrew124C41 · Dec 17, 2017

Styropyro, you never cease to amaze me. I always wonder, what will he do next!

paul1598419 · Dec 17, 2017

I hope the new lenses hold up, at least for a few shots, so you can focus that beam and punch some holes in a stack of razor blades. That book by Koechner is very informative from everything I have heard about it. Not terribly expensive as new text books go, but still not cheap at all.

ultimatekaiser · Dec 17, 2017

Yeah this is great stuff. I need to finish mine...man I've been lazy. keep us updated on what you do with this massive beast!

Benm · Dec 18, 2017

styropyro said:
Not yet because my lenses kept shattering. I'll try it again soon, I did some calculations and it should be possible even though it's not Q-switched. I plan on Q-switching it at some point and then air breakdown should be easy.

That'd be cool with a ruby laser!

I've seen it demonstrated with a 1064 Nd:Yag before, and it's eery how a spark just appears in mid air. It would be really cool if you could recreate that with a visible laser beam, so you can actually see where in converges to the point the beam is narrow enough to cause breakdown in air.

I hope you'll find some lenses that make this possible without blowing up!

Giant Ruby Laser Fun

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