Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

FrozenGate by Avery

A little piece of history...and my quest to find it... [pic heavy]

Yes thank you Hemlock, you pretty much said it all. :) that and some of us actually like to collect the wavelengths, and the IR hene wavelengths are very rare. So it's kind of like showing off a trophy. Aside from Aryntha, i'm not sure I know anyone else who has an IR HeNe laser that works. (Not counting RAMAN gas analyzers just stand alone tubes)
 
Last edited:





As sung by the Moody Blues ---
"To know UV, IR and X-ray, Beauty to find in so many ways"
HM
 
Ah yes... Good ol' UV.... I'll be playing with 325nm again soon...probably Monday...:) yay foreshadowing.
 
Hemlock_Mike said:
Crazy ---
It is not just a hobby, It is the science!!!!
Everyone wants to burn something BUT
there are some tempted to actually experiment.
HMike
Click to expand...

Im beyond the burning laser excitement. I wish I had the money to go after more experimental things- mainly solid state. But even if I had the money, the materials are hard to find besides buying them brand new.

I was moreso asking what kind of experiments you can do with them- not like visible light where you can see how many lines you can get out of a brewster tube, for example.
 
Kind of depends on the wavelength just like visible light. IR tends to be used for scanning purposes. Leak detection/surface scanning and communications fiber optics testing tends to be what IR henes were used for. 1523 is used on fiber a lot because henes are very spectrally clean. The other two IR lines are not used all that much. I think they're also used in interferometry a lot. They tend to be used in a lot of applications where sensors need to respond different light sources to avoid conflicts.
 
I always settle on REO being my favorite HeNe company, based solely on their "special snowflake" tendencies.

Then posts like remind me of that "I don't want to follow society's rules" phase that SP went through. With their 107/27/25's especially.

Nice thread bud! And thanks for the shoutout. My birthday was indeed not long away.
 
Yes. We've both Been away for a long time, and I haven't seen you on Skype at all. I hope you've been doing well and happy birthday again! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since I posted this Beautiful laser. I recently found out that the reason it has relatively hard time starting is because the pressure is a little bit low. I've actually been helium soaking a bunch of my low-pressure tubes as an experiment, including a couple of very rare ones, so I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
I honestly didn't realize this was from last year. Well, then yes, two birthdays haha

Also yes, I have been away for some time now. All the work I was doing began catching up financially. Had to knock that off before I was actually in the hole. I also don't have a working PC. And mobile skyping...ugh.

Keep me in the loop in regards to your tube soaking escapades. I am quite interested in the turnout.
 
Last edited:
Indeed so far it is looking promising, they're improving slowly but steadily. I don't want to post too much here, but I promise I'll be posting on it. I've been working on refurbishing a whole bunch of gas lasers lately...
 
Should be an interesting write up. I can't think of any tubes of mine needing a refurb. My HeNes are pretty happy, the HeCd IS refurbished. Had something like 10 hours on it when I got it...? My ions though, they need a little work.

Reminds me of the tunable Ar that I still need to realign. Now that I have the space for it....hmmmm...

Plus there's the 488nm SL that won't lase. White light checked out during my last run, but I've kinda neglected them for a couple months..
 
Last edited:
Yeah I've got several HeCds burning off excess Helium, though one needs a small alignment tuneup, and several HeNe tubes soaking. My ions are happy as can be. I can probably realign the tunable if needed. It's not too hard, but definitely more than the regular ones. If it's just the prism end, it's easier though the prism just is more picky than the mirrors.
 
ultimatekaiser said:
Yeah I've got several HeCds burning off excess Helium, though one needs a small alignment tuneup, and several HeNe tubes soaking. My ions are happy as can be. I can probably realign the tunable if needed. It's not too hard, but definitely more than the regular ones. If it's just the prism end, it's easier though the prism just is more picky than the mirrors.
Click to expand...

It's going to need to be aligned fully from scratch. I'll need to remove the OC and align the prism end, then add and align the OC.

It wouldn't be *too hard* if I hadn't been so nooby when I first got it, started turning non-tuning knobs, jacked up the alignment, and turned just about all 6 nuts by the end of the night.

For lack of a better word - its f***ed. It'll be a task getting it back in order. I just need to pick it up tomorrow and see if I can even remove the OC. As well as make my first change that I can't come back from.

I'm not looking forward to it. I'm really not. But at this point, the only thing that could make it *worse* would be removing the mirrors and leaving them off. It's already at a pretty bad low.

So. Pop off the OC, fire up my 543, see what I can do. Or perhaps use the 488nm from the ArKr...or see if I can get my 488nm working. Those are ideas listed from worst to best option.
 
Gotcha I'll pm you shortly so we're not offtopic. I can guide you through it pretty easy if you have time, as I'm off of work tomorrow and tonight. I had to do my 643 a few times it's easiest if you have a 488 lab or another argon to get you started that way you're using a WL in use by the laser so the refraction matches. I've not had to do the regular argon tunable, but I did have to do a mixed gas tunable a bit ago, I imagine yours is similar in structure. It's a 543 isn't it?
 
Last edited:
ultimatekaiser said:
Gotcha I'll pm you shortly so we're not offtopic. I can guide you through it pretty easy if you have time, as I'm off of work tomorrow and tonight. I had to do my 643 a few times it's easiest if you have a 488 lab or another argon to get you started. I've not had to do the regular argon, but I did have to do a mixed gas tunable a bit ago, I imagine yours is similar in structure. It's a 543 isn't it?
Click to expand...

The tunable is an Omni 532. I have three sources of 488nm. The single line (PSU malfunctioning), the ArKr (large to work with, taller than 532) and the 488nm OPSL that I got from Zach at SELEM. Not 100% on the magic behind OPSLs, so I was weary to use it as a guide and have that coupled output feed back into the optics.

Anyway; standing by for PMs.
 
I do, I have a sealed mirror 1152 REO head.

It has uses such as mapping gas flow as a LIDAR. There are a lot of gasses that adsorb at 1152 etc...

Steve
 
bloompyle said:
The tunable is an Omni 532. I have three sources of 488nm. The single line (PSU malfunctioning), the ArKr (large to work with, taller than 532) and the 488nm OPSL that I got from Zach at SELEM. Not 100% on the magic behind OPSLs, so I was weary to use it as a guide and have that coupled output feed back into the optics.

Anyway; standing by for PMs.
Click to expand...

The Protera is not a OPSL its a VECSEL

Here's some info on it
Mid page
Solid-State Lasers Are Gunning for Argon-Ion's Place | Features | Sep 2003 | Photonics Spectra

VECSELs Expand into New Applications | Features | Jan 2004 | Photonics Spectra
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top