awesome ruby laser rod

gregkoz · May 20, 2009

Tough Way

That may work - however, significant efficiency loss at ruby /air boundary for the exit beam and the re-entrant beam. The external mirrors would need 1st surface coatings (silvering) and perfect parallel alignment.

The ruby rods have been ground & polished to perfect parallelism and thus are very efficient. The lasing action occurrs when light bounces from mirror to mirror within the rod - building in intensity as it courses to and fro in the medium.

disma · May 20, 2009

The rod is ar coated for external mirrors.

if worse comes to worse, I can always use my quarter shrinker caps.

Chuck · May 29, 2009

Thats a big rod and you are going to need to pump it hard...Hmm that does not sound right. Anyway, I had a 3"x.25 Ruby rod and minimum pump power was 150-200J.

Dont forget to make a pulse forming network to strecth out the flash a bit 1-2ms should be OK, otherwise you will be un necesarily beating up the flash tube.
Here is a video of mine running, it was q switched with a rotating mirror, thats the whining noise in the video. Also when it fires you can see a single frame of red flash at the back of the laser

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH0-H1g72lc

disma · May 29, 2009

ooo! thats prety nice! I hope mine works as well.

Cyparagon · May 29, 2009

Even with AR coating, the power inside the resonator is magnitudes more than anything leaving the chamber, so losses are greater than you'd think. Why isn't it ground at brewsters angle instead?

Darkarmyofone · May 29, 2009

Chuck said:
Thats a big rod and you are going to need to pump it hard...Hmm that does not sound right.

lmao

strange choice of wording, made me smile today though. what did this giant rod cost... i've seen smaller ones for mad high prices, this one is way bigger...maybe i dont even want to know lol

Spyderz20x6 · May 29, 2009

Chuck said:
Thats a big rod and you are going to need to pump it hard...Hmm that does not sound right. Anyway, I had a 3"x.25 Ruby rod and minimum pump power was 150-200J.

Dont forget to make a pulse forming network to strecth out the flash a bit 1-2ms should be OK, otherwise you will be un necesarily beating up the flash tube.
Here is a video of mine running, it was q switched with a rotating mirror, thats the whining noise in the video. Also when it fires you can see a single frame of red flash at the back of the laser

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH0-H1g72lc

That's what she said

lazer · May 29, 2009

Aren't ruby rods usually coated 100% on one side and the other 90%?

Laser_Ben · May 30, 2009

GooeyGus said:
This would just make life so much easier for you...

I actually cant find any helical lamps on ebay right now though... weird...

Ruby is VERY brittle, I used a few small crystals for pumping with LEDs, but the problem is that A, it thermal lenses, and B, it is too brittle to hold in a semi rigid mount. You WILL need high flow water to get that even remotely cooled. Additionally, the lamps will require cooling.

It is a 3 level laser which means you need a LOT of power to get that going. You are probably going to need 800-1000J of light out of the lamps to get that to threshold. That means you need to put in about 2000J with good lamps.

The capacitor bank for that will need to be quite large. You will really be challenged getting this working, but it's a good project to learn from because the results are very visible.

jarrod694 · Nov 27, 2009

I just completed a very powerful laser. It is simple, and uses very cheap and common parts, with the exception of the laser rod. Are you still serious about constructing your laser? If so, then I think I can help you.

It doesn't get much more simple that this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2472/3825689256_84f8a47898_o.jpg

But the performance is good:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/3832527178_6a070d9cd6_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/3882244135_a9984ecfa7_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2602/4135587924_6885954334_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4135616579_1bdfc1021f_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4136377104_b955be5c11_o.jpg

HIMNL9 · Nov 27, 2009

Use a ceramic tube (insulant, heath resistant, and the white vetrified surface is a very good reflector), put the rod in center and 3 or 4 linear lamps all around (also 6, if you want

), and COOL IT WELL

Aluminum cans are not exactly the better choices, for these types of assemblies ..... and elliptical twin-focus cavities require so much micrometrical precision in building it well, that the cost can be prohibitive.

Daedronus · Nov 27, 2009

I can't believe you managed to put a hole in that spoon, nice work

jarrod694 · Nov 27, 2009

Thanks.

I recommend avoiding fancy elliptical reflectors or spiral shaped lamps. I used one large linear lamp I aquired on Ebay. I basically wrapped the lamp and rod together in a flexible reflective material. Aluminum flashing works well here, however you must remove any type of 'protective' enamel or coating it has before using. It should also be polished brightly. My laser is not pretty (really crude arrangement with a lamp and rod just laying on a block of wood, with cardboard box covering the lamp, and wire trigger leads just taped across top of wood), but it works really well.

My laser also works with very LITTLE feedback. I use a YAG output coupler that probably provides only 10 or 20% reflectance at best. In fact, I've used ordinary glass slides (cut from picture frame glass) for an output coupler. The capacitors are just electrolytics. Aside from the rod, it's pretty basic.

jarrod694 · Nov 27, 2009

I have one high reflector designed for 694nm. You don't need anything special for an output coupler - even ordinary glass worked for me.

Obtain a good quality surface-first type mirror (like the good quality ones obtained from inside a copying machine). Try using this for your high reflector. Then cut 3 equally sized glass slides from a section or ordinary glass (I used picture frame glass for mine). Press the glass slides together so that the spots from a pointer or HeNe laser are combined when reflected off of them, and onto a nearby wall. Once this is accomplished, use a metal clip, rubber bands, or come up with some method to hold them tightly together so that they are all parallel. This makes a cheap but surprisingly good OC for a DIY ruby laser.

Here is an example of my experimental setup using this approach.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2423/4059832163_0e23b40a46_o.jpg

And here is the laser in action using this simple approach.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2743/4060574196_fde0386966_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2504/4059832553_9b0eca2c0d_o.jpg

Gryphon · Nov 27, 2009

NICE! Did you blast through the spoon and screw driver with only one shot?

roosl · Nov 27, 2009

Now THAT is DIY laser work!
:gj:
Very nice!

awesome ruby laser rod

gregkoz

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Chuck

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disma

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Cyparagon

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Laser_Ben

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jarrod694

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