Buying: Beam Dump

[Laser_Ben]

I never got around to actually touching it. I'm pretty good about not touching where my fingers don't belong so it slipped my mind A leftover from my days in construction, I think. I'll try to remember to touch it when I get home later today. Mine has been hit with 600mW of green, 1W of violet, and 800mw of IR without any problems.

Peace,
dave

Don't touch the surface Dave, the oils on your fingers can cause burning if you shine a high power laser on it.

 

[Bluefan]

I had a beam dump making a ticking noise above 5J (2.5ns pulse)

 

[aXit]

Best way to make a cheap beam dump is to use a stack of 30-40 razor blades. If you stack them flat against each other, the angle on the cutting edges will infinitely reflect the beam back inside. I have made several like this and they work well. There is also no coating to damage, so the only failure mode is melting.

I just tried that with a stack of 10 utility blades (the snap off kind) You still get a bit of glare, but it seems to be from reflections off the very tip of the blade. But still, much less than a spot on a wall or a black surface.

In particular, what razor blades were you referring to?

 

[Pontiacg5]

I lol'ed at the title of this till I realized what you were talking about, I didn't know such a thing had a name. I've used cinder blocks broken up and arranged in a snail shell like pattern when playing with a 20W CO2 laser. I wouldn't know about higher powered lasers where you can actually see the beam though, but at least I learned a new word today

 

[WRM]

If you look at the Thor labs one, it is made exactly as Ben mentioned, out of razor blades. (The Thor Labs tech told me so). It may also be spray painted black. Here is the link. Bill

http://www.thorlabs.com/thorProduct.cfm?partNumber=LB1

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Maybe you can use a pair of welder's glass and let the beam enter between them at an angle so it can attenuate by bouncing back and forth a few times? Not sure what power this can handle though.

 

[HIMNL9]

I had a beam dump making a ticking noise above 5J (2.5ns pulse)

LOL ! ..... i bet it !

Do you realize what means in terms of watt/second, a beam of 5J for 2,5nS pulses ?

Is the equivalent of 20.000.000 W/S ..... the "ticking noise" is the air in the beam path that become "fried" (well, not literally "fried", but i think you get that what i mean ) ..... the cavity of the beam dump was probably amplificate/reflect the noise .....

 

[Bluefan]

I just remembered, it wasn't 5J, more like 1.5J and a ticking noise above 0.5J. I measured the CW power with 10 pulses per second, hence the confusion. the ticking noise was the beam dump sparkling when it got hit.

532nm may be a bit more violent than 1064nm. I used a power meter above it's 10W limit without damage, but I think I damaged it with 5W of green (all average powers with 10hz rep rate).