Holography

Hi all - I'm trying to do some holography and I'm reading a book that has me confused on several points. First, it says that only 5W is needed - but the only lasers I have are the Dorcy Jr Kenom Red, and the stonetek 16x Red. Obviously, the Dorcy torch laser presents problems as far as vibrations go while turning it on. So my main questions are:


Will either of these units work for holography?
and
How can I turn them on without vibrating the isolation table (homebuilt)?

Thanks;
ScythEye

Or you could just spend $139 for one of these Holography kits from Litiholo.

They're pretty small but the documentation might help. Good luck and post some movies when you finally make one!

CC

Anyone have any pictures of modern laser holograms? Or that kit particularly?

To prevent any vibration bypass the tailcap, just run two long wires from the negative of the battery to the case itself, attach them to a switch and you can turn it on with no vibrations from 5 feet away (or however far you need).

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

For long exposure holograms you need to have an isolation table. The vibration he speaks of is vibrations created by earth tremors, traffic on the street, and even just walking across the room, etc. That's how sensitive an exposure is. The spectral linewidth of the laser must be incredibly narrow which is why helium neon lasers are used most often. You also want a laser that has a long coherence length, again the helium neon. There are some, however, that bypass the isolation table altogether by using a 1064nm or 532nm SHG YAG pulsed system. For green holograms most people use a single longitudinal mode laser due to the very small linewidth (< 10^-5nm) and a long coherence length if they us a CW laser.

Diode lasers really don't work well for holograms because they change wavelength as they heat up.

Most people use a sand table for homebuilt holography.

Look at Holography Forum for good information: http://holographyforum.org/phpBB2/index.php