Disassembly of a 589nm laser PGL-III-A (PIC HEAVY)

[BShanahan14rulz]

http://www.intechopen.com/download/get/type/pdfs/id/24810 < maybe the pictures down on page 16 (p.74) may help with your identification. Also, laser spark plugs lolol

 

[IsaacT]

I never saw in the OP that the laser had been broken or a dud or stopped working or whatever. So when you were unscrewing the module I was like "Awesome! Put that sucker in somethin sick!" and then when you started disassembling things I was like "woah there buddy. Science can only benefit from so much...."

Then when you removed the crystals I shat my britches. Metaphorically. And then I started giggling because I could not believe somebody would do that to a 589. I was looking forward to reading a shitstorm of "Nooooooooooo" comments.

All that to say thank you for the entertainment this morning and I hope you get your baby back to lasing somewhere down the road. That stuff is never a happy time but you seem to be making the most of it.

Cheers,
Isaac

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Lol WBS! Believe me I had similar feelings disassembling it. I know how to rebuild it , just a matter of having time, I still thoroughly marked where everything was. So I can easily reassemble it in the host if I wish, but I wanted to explore the science a bit before doing so. I find it exciting. Its sparked quite an interesting discussion, and I urge anyone with thoughts to put them down. If I ever have time, I'll see if I can recreate this laser benchtop style.

As for it being a Cr:YAG, that seems feasible, or as mentioned above, it could be dual crystals @ Cr/Nd, or even double doped as I've head of both before. If I recall Cr has a lot of the same lasing range that Nd does...

Edit: what about a V:YAG? thoughts?

 

[felipep]

I disassembled the same laser in 2015, at the beginning of my PhD... and yes, out of infinite curiosity to inderstand how 589 nm light was generated in such small thing. Naively took the SHG crystal out/in from the cavity and the device stopped lasing, unexpectedly at the time. It took me several days to make it lase again, but it worked out in the end. It turned out it was not useful for sodium spectroscopy experiments (then I used a Coherent 699 and a MOPA+SHG laser for laser guide stars ), but a pretty device to learn a lot of laser physics so I kept it until today. In line with your thoughts, I wanted to rebuild it all with a more robust mechanics, better heat management, peltiers, maybe an intracavity etalon, etc., but never materialized. Have you progressed with your laser since then?
Also, I cannot see anymore the original pictures of this post. If you can make it available again I'd appreciate it.

Best,

 

[felipep]

And here the spectrum: 2.5 nm FWHM centered at 588.5 nm. I don't remember if this is the wavelength in air or was already converted to vacuum wavelength, but the difference should be 0.2 nm approximately.

 

[Sowee7]

I disassembled the same laser in 2015, at the beginning of my PhD... and yes, out of infinite curiosity to inderstand how 589 nm light was generated in such small thing. Naively took the SHG crystal out/in from the cavity and the device stopped lasing, unexpectedly at the time. It took me several days to make it lase again, but it worked out in the end. It turned out it was not useful for sodium spectroscopy experiments (then I used a Coherent 699 and a MOPA+SHG laser for laser guide stars ), but a pretty device to learn a lot of laser physics so I kept it until today. In line with your thoughts, I wanted to rebuild it all with a more robust mechanics, better heat management, peltiers, maybe an intracavity etalon, etc., but never materialized. Have you progressed with your laser since then?
Also, I cannot see anymore the original pictures of this post. If you can make it available again I'd appreciate it.

Best,
View attachment 74358

Those dont use SHG, they use SFG