KMitch
0
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2015
- Messages
- 56
- Points
- 18
After experiencing some trouble in finding someone to meter a few of the lasers I bought, I decided to try something crazy and reach out to the people at the Texas Petawatt Laser Facility, home of the most powerful laser in the world until just recently. Its peak power is a massive 1 Petawatt (190 J, 170 fs), which is 100 times the average power demand of the entire world during that short pulse.
It definitely helped being a visiting scholar at UT, and having all the safety training completed at the university, but I got a friendly response back from someone who was willing to work after hours to meter my lasers.
We both arrived at the meeting point a bit early, and I gowned up in basic cleanroom attire because the laser is housed in a Class 100,000 cleanroom. The laser is HUGE, and all of its components take up several laboratories. As I entered the first room, I passed by the 10W 532nm pump, several optical parametric amplifiers, a dizzying array of optics that must have taken ages to align, and enormous capacitors. The laser was on, and there was a constant "snapping" of the flash lamps and intense green light being generated.
We found a little space on one of the tables and we were able to find a couple of old power meters. The batteries were dead, but luckily I had a fresh pack of 9V with me. We metered my Sanwu 3W blue (that was a bit low at 2.75W), my LaserBTB PL532-200 which peaked above 400 mW and averaged about 320 mW, and my mysterious 10mW Optotronics that was measured by the company at 15mW but averaged about 50mW in our test. I say "mysterious" because this little pointer has a crystal that likes it hot, and it takes awhile to warm up. When it does, the beam gets bright enough to see in a lit room. I modded it to fit a 3.7V Li-ion battery with dummy battery, instead of (2) AAA at 3.2V total, and I noticed it was even brighter. It can burn through a glove and melt electrical tape unfocused, so I suspected it was putting out more than 15mW.
After getting measurements on all three lasers using two different meters, we had some time to spare and I was fortunate enough to get a full, private tour of the laser and take some pictures and video. I don't know the function of all of the components that I took pictures of, since there was a lot of information to take in and I'm just a hobbyist working in a different field. All in all though, it was a really fun time and I'll have several reviews to post tomorrow.
Here's a link to the laser diagram. Short video coming soon.
Laser Layout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQM3FQRodSI
It definitely helped being a visiting scholar at UT, and having all the safety training completed at the university, but I got a friendly response back from someone who was willing to work after hours to meter my lasers.
We both arrived at the meeting point a bit early, and I gowned up in basic cleanroom attire because the laser is housed in a Class 100,000 cleanroom. The laser is HUGE, and all of its components take up several laboratories. As I entered the first room, I passed by the 10W 532nm pump, several optical parametric amplifiers, a dizzying array of optics that must have taken ages to align, and enormous capacitors. The laser was on, and there was a constant "snapping" of the flash lamps and intense green light being generated.
We found a little space on one of the tables and we were able to find a couple of old power meters. The batteries were dead, but luckily I had a fresh pack of 9V with me. We metered my Sanwu 3W blue (that was a bit low at 2.75W), my LaserBTB PL532-200 which peaked above 400 mW and averaged about 320 mW, and my mysterious 10mW Optotronics that was measured by the company at 15mW but averaged about 50mW in our test. I say "mysterious" because this little pointer has a crystal that likes it hot, and it takes awhile to warm up. When it does, the beam gets bright enough to see in a lit room. I modded it to fit a 3.7V Li-ion battery with dummy battery, instead of (2) AAA at 3.2V total, and I noticed it was even brighter. It can burn through a glove and melt electrical tape unfocused, so I suspected it was putting out more than 15mW.
After getting measurements on all three lasers using two different meters, we had some time to spare and I was fortunate enough to get a full, private tour of the laser and take some pictures and video. I don't know the function of all of the components that I took pictures of, since there was a lot of information to take in and I'm just a hobbyist working in a different field. All in all though, it was a really fun time and I'll have several reviews to post tomorrow.
Here's a link to the laser diagram. Short video coming soon.
Laser Layout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQM3FQRodSI
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cheers :beer:
