awesome ruby laser rod

[disma]

I just acquired an awesomely large ruby rod to build a very powerfull laser with. Now I just need to find mirrors for it.

 

[ElektroFreak]

That end looks nice, no chips.. You oughta have some fun with that.

 

[diachi]

Very nice !! You'll be needing the mirrors AND a housing for it all, something needs to keep all that flash power inside you know !

I imagine you could use the pulse forming network and trigger etc as well as the flash lamp from an SSY-1 for pumping it .

Very Nice !

-Adam

 

[ElektroFreak]

While I've never tried it personally, you can easily make a housing by cutting the ends off a soda can. The bare aluminum interior is reflective enough..

Check your PMs Diachi..

 

[Spyderz20x6]

Wow!!!
Where did you get that?

 

[disma]

Hmmm, thats a good idea! I will try that! I have bought a few photo flash units to take caps from. Those old vivitar units work quite well for ssy1's, i'm hoping they will work just as well for this one. If anyone has an OC or HR mirror for this (694.3nm high power coatings) and wishes to sell it, let me know! The little speck on the side bottom right in the third pic is a piece of foam material from the container it was in.

 

[disma]

An alien spacecraft crashed in my backyard. NO, just kidding! I got it off ebay.

 

[GooeyGus]

With ruby you need to pump the whole rod, which usually requires a helical flash lamp. With YAG you can get away with only pumping a side or half of the rod, but ruby needs the whole thing excited or else it wont lase, or will be much lower power.

Where did you get that rod? Was it the one on ebay for $800?

I love how it's fluorescing in the pics... I have some small ruby sphere here, 3-6mm in diameter and they look awesome when excited by 405nm and 442nm light

 

[ElektroFreak]

^Would he still need a helical lamp if he pumped with straight lamps on 2 or 3 sides? You would think that the reflective aluminum walls would do a decent job of spreading the energy around..

 

[GooeyGus]

yeah I'm sure he could, but one can pick up a nice helical flash lamp for like 100 bucks, and it would just be easier

 

[ElektroFreak]

I didn't realize helical lamps were relatively common.. That would be the easiest option, no doubt.

 

[disma]

I didn't think I would have to have a helical lamp... I'm hoping 2 linear lamps will be enough. No, 800.00 was way out of my budget! I'd have been more likely to have had the alien ship crash yield the rod! A friend of mine and I went in on a pair of rods. I was going to get the smaller one, but my friends wife was upset with his expenditure, so he took the smaller one.

 

[cab]

An elliptical cavity with the rod at one focus and a flash lamp at the other should work....

 

[disma]

It would be easier if it does. (since I have 1 linear fl already.) I could polish a piece of aluminum flashing for the reflector, it might be a little heavier duty than a can. I was planning on using a corner reflector for the hr, still don't have an oc though.

 

[rocketparrotlet]

WOW!

What will the power on this one be? Aren't ruby lasers in the kilowatt range, but with super-short pulses?

-Mark

 

[disma]

Assuming this rod is capable of 20J, and the pulse lasts 1 ms, it is a 20,000 watt pulse. Of course avg power will be quite small. 1 pulse per second would still be 20 watts.