Disassembly and reassembly?

[LaserGuns]

I'm planning on disassembling a o-like 150mw green laser module and reassembling it (lenses, crystals, etc.) in a different package than the native 12mm tube.

Is there anything I should be aware of? I'mm be recording the distances of every components with a nice pair of digital calipers so I should be able to maintain the focus pretty easily. Do I need to maintain the orientation of the crystal along the beam's axis? Like could it be rotated along the beams axis without messing anything up?

I don't have to module yet, but I noticed when I disassembled an old broken green module that it had some sort of beam splitter going to what looked like a photo-(brainfart-- receiver thingee... Its late) and that was wired into the controller board. What was that?

Sorry, but my understanding if green lasers is limited to their basic operating theory:thinking:

Thanks for any help!

 

[hugo999999]

you will find this very very hard to do, the crystals need to be aligned perfectly and it is almost impossible to do this by hand

 

[aXit]

Yes, rotation along the beam path's axis is vital to the final green light output.

 

[LaserGuns]

Aren't there tutorials on how to make green lasers on this forum? Are they just poor quality?

Looking at the other one I took apart, the crystal was held in a brass disk with a notch cut out, If I left it in the disc, would this be more feasible?

 

[roddenberry]

Sadly, your chances of success will be quite slim. Between the alignement necessary to get the infrared beam through the Nd:YVO4 crystal, the distance between the different optics including the beam's rotation angle, it would be hard for someone without a lot of experience to get it to lase again.

The only reason i'd want to disassemble a module would be to have an open air display where the different components of the laser are visible, but even at that, the possibility of exposure to a hazardous invisible infrared laser beam during alignment is always something to be aware of.

Robert

 

[LaserGuns]

Hmmm. Would it work if I left all of the crystals in the sub assembly that holds them and the diode (It looks just like the one in your avatar) And used that in my assembly? It would be less than ideal, but may still work...

So the IR beam needs to intercept the crystal at a specific point at a specific angle? How are they normally aligned?