C-Mount optics?

[lamborgini8]

Are there any optics that are easily obtainable like aixiz, only for c-mount diodes? I would love to make a 1W+ red

 

[diachi]

You could try taking the crystals and stuff out of one of those aixiz 50mW modules . and swapping the IR diode for a red one.

 

[ElektroFreak]

I've had problems with that approach, since the way the Aixiz lab-style housings are laid out internally is not conducive to using just a c-mount. It's laid out to allow for the crystal set and optics, so the collimating lens can't be adjusted enough to obtain focus from a c-mount. Your best bet is to talk to billg519 about making your own housing.. he has lot's of experience with this, and a c-mount is an easy diode to mount.

 

[GooeyGus]

even with the way billg does it, you WONT get a good beam. His lasers are meant for BURNING (and burn they do!!!) But you'll never get a nice beam from a c-mount without a lot of optics and custom ways to mount them.

 

[ElektroFreak]

IIRC, at the very least you'll need a c-mount with a FAC lens, either a GRIN lens or a pair of prisms and some good collimating optics to get yourself some semblance of a decent beam.. Gooey would know more specifics, I'm sure.

 

[billg519]

GooeyGus is right, my c-mount IR lasers are for short range burning. If you want a c-mount red for burning, then my approach works well. The problem with these diodes is that they are a bar-line type of emitter. The slow axis and fast axis (the axes? diverge at markedly different rates. This makes beam formation and collimation into a comparably formidable task. You get into needing prisms, cylindrical lenses and other such goodies thet might not be in your parts drawer. Then, there's the machining of mounts for all the optics. You might want to contact heruursciences as I think he got some collimating stuff from Boston Lasers and will probably sell it.

 

[HumanSymphony]

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1236307666/137#137

The skinny about multimode diodes, all these diodes are high power emitters that are multi mode, This doesen't mean they are going to be BAD, all it means is you need a cylinder lens to correct the slow axis.

You can do this two ways, with a +FL microfiber cylinder lens, then an achromat, you get more power but you also get a 4mr divergance at best.

Next you can use a achromat and a weaker +FL cylinder lens to make the beam collimated, this gives better results and a bigger beam, but better spread. This is the best choice for indoor beam displays.

Finally you can use a -FL cylinder lens to make the slow axis spread as much as the fast axis and get the best quality beam but with a 15% loss in power for a reasonable beam diameter say 1/2 inch.

The only thing multimode diode laser beams are not good for is high speed laser light show graphics.

 

[JLSE]

Would the optics from a 6x sled be of any use? I have one of these reds from Chris. I was thinking of using these to try and correct the beam.

As for portable, I think these diodes would be best suited for some sort of labb'y type setup and will most likely be going with that.

 

[GooeyGus]

No offense meant to chris at all, but that is a VERY simplified explanation. I mean, that is exactly what you need to do, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

And like he said that will give you a ~6mmx6mm square beam.

A better beam can be had with more complicated optics.

 

[HumanSymphony]

If you look at his GB thread you'll see he actually sells multimode collimating setups for $25

 

[LikeitBright]

Are there any optics that are easily obtainable like aixiz, only for c-mount diodes? I would love to make a 1W+ red

The optics are the same just a lens or two for C-mount, 5.6mm etc ... its just the way the die is mounted on the sink that makes it 'cmount'. So what you mean is how to hold the optics relative to the c-mount correctly? Only way I do it is to machine up something suitable..

 

[HumanSymphony]

[quote author=lamborgini8 link=1239182811/0#0 date=1239182811]Are there any optics that are easily obtainable like aixiz, only for c-mount diodes? I would love to make a 1W+ red

The optics are the same just a lens or two for C-mount, 5.6mm etc ... its just the way the die is mounted on the sink that makes it 'cmount'.  So what you mean is how to hold the optics relative to the c-mount correctly?  Only way I do it is to machine up something suitable..[/quote]
C-mounts use entirely different optics... you're not gonna get good results simply putting an aixiz lens in front of it... you need 3 different lenses just to get a 1/2 inch SQUARE beam :-/

 

[GooeyGus]

[quote author=LikeitBright link=1239182811/0#10 date=1239411744][quote author=lamborgini8 link=1239182811/0#0 date=1239182811]Are there any optics that are easily obtainable like aixiz, only for c-mount diodes? I would love to make a 1W+ red

The optics are the same just a lens or two for C-mount, 5.6mm etc ... its just the way the die is mounted on the sink that makes it 'cmount'.  So what you mean is how to hold the optics relative to the c-mount correctly?  Only way I do it is to machine up something suitable..[/quote]
C-mounts use entirely different optics... you're not gonna get good results simply putting an aixiz lens in front of it... you need 3 different lenses just to get a 1/2 inch SQUARE beam :-/[/quote]


If you want to get REALLY picky, you're both right. Yes you could mount a die that would typically be in a 5.6mm diode onto a c-mount, and you could use just an aixiz lens to collimate it.   The problem is that the dies that are usually put into c-mount packages have large multimode emitters that make a lot of power and a lot of heat, hence the need for the c-mount. SOOO, as a general rule of thumb, c-mount diodes are usually multimode and have large emitters, making it a necessity to have more optics.

Conversely, if you put a die that would normally go onto a c-mount package and put it in a 5.6mm housing, you could throw it into an aixiz module and it would still look like total crap without the necessary correction optics 

 

[LikeitBright]

[quote author=LikeitBright link=1239182811/0#10 date=1239411744][quote author=lamborgini8 link=1239182811/0#0 date=1239182811]Are there any optics that are easily obtainable like aixiz, only for c-mount diodes? I would love to make a 1W+ red

The optics are the same just a lens or two for C-mount, 5.6mm etc ... its just the way the die is mounted on the sink that makes it 'cmount'.  So what you mean is how to hold the optics relative to the c-mount correctly?  Only way I do it is to machine up something suitable..[/quote]
C-mounts use entirely different optics... you're not gonna get good results simply putting an aixiz lens in front of it... you need 3 different lenses just to get a 1/2 inch SQUARE beam :-/[/quote]
Only if its a multimode c-mount die. Which often they are, but there is nothing inherent to the c-mount architecture which means it will be multimode and need fast axis correction (FAC)

 

[suiraM]

A multimode diode is not a problem.

One axis will have a reasonably low M[sup]2[/sup] value, and the other axis will have a crap value. There will be astigmatism. If it's not fast axis corrected, you will need a 50x microscope ($15 or so from Edmund), a fused silica fiber with suitable diameter (twice what the datasheet lists as the emitter height over the base of the chip) and some glue to perform the fast axis correction yourself.

None of this is rocket science.

For a good spot, however, you want to pass the beam through a fiber, which will give a round spot where both axes can be reasonably well collimated, and where the astigmatism is a moot point. Thorlabs and others sell fiber ferrules. Doric sells gradient index lenses. Ball and half-ball lenses are cheap anywhere. Multimode fiber is practically free. How much of it you want pre-assembled and well-aligned up front is a choice, but there is no reason why a hobbyist can't look up some simple EO application notes and Wikipedia articles for the necessary formulas and tables for getting almost all the energy from a multimode diode of any size into a fiber and collimating or focusing the output to a spot size that will be satisfactory.

Whether it is worth the effort or not, is another matter.

In any case, there are also fiber coupled laser diodes in the visible range out there, and any one of them should do more than nicely enough for this sort of use. There are also a number of manufacturers that provide fast and slow axis correction. Finally, if a round spot is a priority and fiber is out, Blue Sky can probably help... for a price.

Apart from that, the option does exist to use several lower power diodes with any number of beam combining schemes. Beam splitters, gratings, axicons, parabolic mirror plus lens, inverted telescope setups, and so forth. The effort involved will be about the same, while the cost will probably be higher per watt, though the beam quality might be significantly higher.

Not sure why a sky-high output power is necessary in the first place, though.