575nm Dye Yellow laser

[NightExplorer96]

Anyone ever see this video? Just stumbled upon it and found this pretty interesting so I thought I would share it with you all

Anyway here it is:


-Alex

 

[Sigurthr]

Yep, standard dye laser. They're incredibly complex to engineer and maintain. Major amounts of money right there.

 

[IsaacT]

Yep, standard dye laser. They're incredibly complex to engineer and maintain. Major amounts of money right there.

Got an estimate? So many things laser related are incredibly expensive. Hard to put it in perspective without a number though. Thousands? 10s of Thousands?.....

*gulp* ......

100,000+?

 

[NightExplorer96]

Got an estimate? So many things laser related are incredibly expensive. Hard to put it in perspective without a number though. Thousands? 10s of Thousands?.....

*gulp* ......

100,000+?

Im also curious to know Im guessing it's at least over 10,000$ but then again, this is a wild guess.

-Alex

 

[Sigurthr]

Hmm, a roughly estimated guess for the unit shown (just the pumps and yellows, not the blue and red decks):

Flashlamp primary pump (optics, cooling, power supply): $8000-$10,000
Nd:YAG stage (optics, q switch, controller, cooling): $12,000
KTP (532nm) stage (optics, mounts, cooling): $4000
Dye Stage (reservoir, fluid pumps, cavity cell, cooling, fluid dynamics, optics): $14,000

So you're looking at around $40k.

 

[IsaacT]

Also...who is that guy? He is a wizard of photons. Seriously he does so many cool things with lasers! The dye laser, the liquid nitrogen cooled Mits diodes. Too cool.

 

[NightExplorer96]

Hmm, a roughly estimated guess for the unit shown (just the pumps and yellows, not the blue and red decks):

Flashlamp primary pump (optics, cooling, power supply): $8000-$10,000
Nd:YAG stage (optics, q switch, controller, cooling): $12,000
KTP (532nm) stage (optics, mounts, cooling): $4000
Dye Stage (reservoir, fluid pumps, cavity cell, cooling, fluid dynamics, optics): $14,000

So you're looking at around $40k.

Wow! And I know this is most likely going to sound like a silly question but I am genuinely interested and want to learn haha

Instead of such a bulky laser, why dosen't he just use a powerful 532nm laser instead, and aim it into the "glass"? Won't that work just the same?

-Alex

 

[IsaacT]

Wow! And I know this is most likely going to sound like a silly question but I am genuinely interested and want to learn haha

Instead of such a bulky laser, why dosen't he just use a powerful 532nm laser instead, and aim it into the "glass"? Won't that work just the same?

-Alex

He needs a LOT of pump power to get the dye to lase. You can cause jello to lase, just hit it with enough power. He uses a YAG laser because that is the easiest way to get that much power. Remember when he said he was turning the amperage up to 25A? Also he was Q-Switching as well.

 

[Sigurthr]

Well, that IS what he is doing, lol. The flashlamp pumps the Nd:YAG to lase at 1064nm at probably around 70-100Watts. The 1064nm pumps the KTP to lase at 532nm at I'd say around 40-50Watts. The 532nm pumps the dye to lase at 575nm at around ~17Watts (10W showed at around half power in a nonlinear output curve). All those previous stages are what's needed to get the kind of power levels required to compensate for inefficiencies in each stage.

I'm not sure who the gentlemen is, but it is clear he works in the field and has extensive knowledge, training, and resources. Every single thing he has shown is done up properly on optical breadboards and custom made machined parts.

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Thousands just to keep it running, and the parts are becoming unobtainable. There was a recent sale on
the <_< other >_> forum and the buyer had it broken the first time he tried to use it, so we can also add
fragile to the list. Man, the power out of that thing is just obscene.

He goes by the name planters.

 

[IsaacT]

Also remember that the majority of the components underneath the optical tray were his green and blue lasers for the projector he was making. So not the entire bulk of that rolling table was the DYE laser.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yeah these are not cheap. I've used a dye laser and they're a royal pain in the ass to maintain (cleaning) and dangerous lol. I seen this vid before was actually just looking for it again last week

 

[Sigurthr]

Yep, most dyes are toxic, and they degrade fast with lasing, so the equipment needs to be cleaned and refilled regularly.

I seem to remember a thread here by someone who inherited a dye laser and was trying to DIY it into lasing, but had trouble sourcing a suitable pump (iirc he had ~15W of 532, but it wasn't enough). They had massive issues with leaks and cleanups.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yeah you need a lot of specialty stuff to operate them and the system has to be cleaned very often, top to bottom, and the seals and joints replaced frequently. The dues are toxic and dust tends to accumulate on high power optics easy. Right where you don't want it, because it gets trapped in the beam.

 

[Sigurthr]

Y'know that's one thing I haven't managed to replicate outside of the lab.. particle trapping. I don't have any real high power stuff anymore anyway, but still.

 

[Atomicrox]

You can do particle trapping with a 650nm pointer around 100-300mW and a marker pen. Just need some patience