Argon laser - Is this worth of buying?!?! Help

[Laserbuilder]

My MOT is overheating like hell! Even without load!

This is normal for the MOT. All of them become very hot because the iron core works very near to the state of magnetic saturation. To reduce the heating it would be good to add a couple of tens of turns in the primary.

 

[9A3DAA]

Do I need cooling glass cathode bell? Its very very hot hot!! I will not use this tube for continuous operation. Just for pulsed

 

[Laserbuilder]

I think that cooling it with a fan will not harm.

 

[paul1598419]

Regardless of how you use it, you will need a high volume fan to cool it. Just too much waste heat there.

 

[9A3DAA]

I just finished power supply for a pulsed laser.
And yes, it works!

 

[diachi]

I just finished power supply for a pulsed laser.
And yes, it works!

Your YT embed didn't work, you only use the video ID, not the whole link.


{YT}YJywzPUnirU{/YT}

 

[chloderic]

Very interesting, this motivates me to unpack my spectra physics 161 again ..... thanks !

 

[paul1598419]

How are you moving heat away from your tube? It is just out in the open with no active cooling that I could see. These tubes get very hot very fast.

 

[diachi]

How are you moving heat away from your tube? It is just out in the open with no active cooling that I could see. These tubes get very hot very fast.

Not going to be too bad when running pulsed.

Though, I don't imagine that's too good for a hot filament tube designed to run CW anyway...

 

[RedCowboy]

Very interesting, so much power in to get so little out, lasers have come a long way although the argon beam quality can be very good. :beer:

 

[Cyparagon]

Why did you turn the cathode off? You're going to damage it rapidly running it cold. Each pulse will blow more and more of the emissive coating from the tungsten away.

 

[paul1598419]

I had to go back and watch the video again. He did turn off the filament voltage while still pulsing the laser. Good catch, Cyp. I guess I hadn't watched the whole video the first time.

 

[RedCowboy]

Why did you turn the cathode off? You're going to damage it rapidly running it cold. Each pulse will blow more and more of the emissive coating from the tungsten away.

I had done some reading about all the things needed to make an argon work but I am still ignorant as to most of the important details and have never owned one, that's Great info Cyparagon. :beer:

 

[diachi]

Why did you turn the cathode off? You're going to damage it rapidly running it cold. Each pulse will blow more and more of the emissive coating from the tungsten away.

It'll do that hot too, which is why I mentioned it earlier in the thread.

Pulsed argon lasers are typically cold cathode (as in there's no filament at all).

 

[Cyparagon]

It'll [sputter while] hot too

Sputtering is greatly reduced when the cathode is hot. With instant start ballasts for instance, a fluorescent lamp that is turned on 50 times a day but only runs a total of 30 minutes will fail far sooner than a fluorescent lamp that is turned on once a day but runs for 8 hours. This is because striking a hot cathode design while cold is non-ideal. Programmed start ballasts pre-heat the cathodes before striking the lamp, and produce far less wear as a result.