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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

25$ new broadband AR PBS cubes from Newport

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Newport has some excess stock visible AR coated pbs cubes marked down from $350 to $25 through July 7th 2014 or until they are gone - here: 5811. Would be a nice grab for dual diode builds (who doesn't want to see a 3W 520nm?)

They also have several other deeply discounted optical components available that might be worth a look.
 





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half an inch is pretty typical. not a bad deal at all, though they're not really used for beam combining, more for polarizing output from a random polarized laser. dichroic glass slabs are generally better for that.
 

upaa27

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Wow what a nice find! Thanks man. (Bought a 1cm^3 PBS for $200). I feel like an idiot now XD
 
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Greetings,

Excellent find ! +1rep


cheers,
Moe


Newport has some excess stock visible AR coated pbs cubes marked down from $350 to $25 through July 7th 2014 or until they are gone - here: 5811. Would be a nice grab for dual diode builds (who doesn't want to see a 3W 520nm?)

They also have several other deeply discounted optical components available that might be worth a look.
 
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*dichroic glass slabs are generally better for that.

AFAIK dichros only work to combine beams of differing wavelength. If that's not the case, somebody please teach me. I won't be canceling my order of 2 of these regardless, because I can find other uses maybe for an interferometer or holography setup, but I like to know as many ways to do something as I can.
 

IsaacT

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AFAIK dichros only work to combine beams of differing wavelength. If that's not the case, somebody please teach me. I won't be canceling my order of 2 of these regardless, because I can find other uses maybe for an interferometer or holography setup, but I like to know as many ways to do something as I can.

As I understand it, you are correct.
 
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I was always taught for it to be a true beam combine they have to be opposing polarizations. that can't happen with a PBS. (they'd both be linearly polarized parallel)

a regular beam splitter maybe, though it'd be a bit more complex. they make slabs of glass that are made specifically for this, but they're fairly uncommon. but as he mentioned, they're good for feedback and other such applications.
 
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Getting two incoming beams to have orthogonal polarization can be as simple as rotating one of the diodes about its axis - depending on the diodes. IIRC Rick Trent has been using cubes for dual diode builds like this: 6w dual diode 445nm laser kit most powerful handheld 445 in the world right now - YouTube.

The polarization could also be modified via a waveplate to get it how you need before going into the pbs. Incidentally, Newport has some of their waveplates for $10 in that same deal.
 

IsaacT

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I have always wondered if it would be possible to get one of those one way mirrors and combine that way. I would imagine a lot of losses though.
 
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Getting two incoming beams to have orthogonal polarization can be as simple as rotating one of the diodes about its axis - depending on the diodes. IIRC Rick Trent has been using cubes for dual diode builds like this: 6w dual diode 445nm laser kit most powerful handheld 445 in the world right now - YouTube.

The polarization could also be modified via a waveplate to get it how you need before going into the pbs. Incidentally, Newport has some of their waveplates for $10 in that same deal.

you can use a regular beamsplitter. but a polarizing beamsplitter wouldn't work properly. because anything entering it will have its polarization changed to the polarization of the cube. (IE they all come out the same polarization) but yes you're right. and the waveplate would be a good way to retard the light as well. :)
 
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If you feed a single beam into a polarizing beam splitter, you get 2 oppositely polarized beams out. If you feed 2 oppositely polarized beams into a pbs, you get a single beam with both polarizations out. It's just using it in reverse. I don't know of any way to use a half silvered mirror type beam splitter to combine beams. If anyone has a reference that describes a way other than a pbs cube for combining lasers of the same wavelength, please share it. I'm always willing to learn more.
 

Wmacky

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I debating on 1 or 2 of these, but this debate has be confused as to their usability to combine beams? What type of Beam splitter did ARG use for his dual, and triple beam lasers? I guess they still would be usefull for other things, like building a setup to check my scope optics?
 
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There are several threads that can shed some light on the issue. The most reliable way to combine 2 identical lasers would be to have them rotated 90 degrees from each other and pass the collimated beams into a PBS cube. See this thread for example: Good source for PBS cubes. Or this one: pbs cube combining help. Or this one which includes a nice picture of this concept in action at the bottom of post 5: sled pbs

Hopefully seeing some of the past discussion on the matter helps clear things up. You can find some more threads by searching for "PBS combine"
 




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