Aloha Everyone,
I'm new to the forum, but not to lasers - I used to operate scanning confocal lasers and help construct and operate a femtosecond sapphire-Ti laser that was pumped by a Verdi 10W. I used it for multiphoton microscopy on living cells. In Boston I used to kill individual neurons with a coumarin dye laser I rigged to a Leica microscope. I've had bunch of He-Ne lasers since the 1980s and lately I've picked up a couple green and Bluray laser pointers. So I've been around lasers/bio-imaging a long time and have a pretty good grasp on how they work and what they can and can't do.
I'm here now because I broke down and got one of the 445nm lasers off of eBay. Mine is (claimed) rated at 1.5 W, has a decent looking power supply, AR glass lens, heat sink and cooling fan - even a cute LCD temperature meter. I DO have laser goggles rated at 4OD at 445, and I am quite aware of the dangers of the beam. I've done some reading already about these lasers; their design, their history, lenses, etc. Pretty amazing how far we've come in 25 years.
As for me personally, I live with my family on the island of Kauai, own a small business, and enjoy old stuff like vintage cars, motorcycles and cameras. I like lasers, astronomy, fuel cells and composite materials as well.
My plan is to lurk and read and learn for a while and if I have questions, hopefully they will be intelligent ones.
I'm new to the forum, but not to lasers - I used to operate scanning confocal lasers and help construct and operate a femtosecond sapphire-Ti laser that was pumped by a Verdi 10W. I used it for multiphoton microscopy on living cells. In Boston I used to kill individual neurons with a coumarin dye laser I rigged to a Leica microscope. I've had bunch of He-Ne lasers since the 1980s and lately I've picked up a couple green and Bluray laser pointers. So I've been around lasers/bio-imaging a long time and have a pretty good grasp on how they work and what they can and can't do.
I'm here now because I broke down and got one of the 445nm lasers off of eBay. Mine is (claimed) rated at 1.5 W, has a decent looking power supply, AR glass lens, heat sink and cooling fan - even a cute LCD temperature meter. I DO have laser goggles rated at 4OD at 445, and I am quite aware of the dangers of the beam. I've done some reading already about these lasers; their design, their history, lenses, etc. Pretty amazing how far we've come in 25 years.
As for me personally, I live with my family on the island of Kauai, own a small business, and enjoy old stuff like vintage cars, motorcycles and cameras. I like lasers, astronomy, fuel cells and composite materials as well.
My plan is to lurk and read and learn for a while and if I have questions, hopefully they will be intelligent ones.
