DIY Green and questions

[Maven]

Hello first off i have some questions that i have asked and never got a really good answer to:

this one is talking about laser diodes from cd burner which i was told are multi mode diodes

Well see there already learning things.

ok more questions then.

ok say most laser diodes give off oval shaped beams, does it have any effect on the beam strength with it being multi mode?
and it being multi mode i would assume that means it runs in multiple modes at the same time and not just switch between them?
also if it did just switch between them would it be possible to stabilize the diode to get a decent output?

these questions are where i asked about building a green, all i was told was ebay but i would like to know if there are any companies selling them

hmm, i just had a cool idea and i don't believe anyone has talked about it much.

is there anywhere to buy the crystals needed for a green laser cheap?

i would like to build my own 100+ mw, but i am not sure where i can find the crystals or if it is even economical to buy the crystals separately maybe i could just buy a very cheap laser with crystals that are large enough to produce 100+ mw? and build my own pump (module.. edited)?

i also have some additional questions,

i have a dx true 30 green laser, i would like to know what is the maximum power that the crystals can put out without me damaging them.(i am thinking about building a driver and putting a new pump diode in it if i can get a good bit better power out of it)

i have the resources to make heatsinks and such would the crystals work better if i heatsinked them better? the one i can see with the module pulled apart is only touching metal on 2 sides i could make a heatsink that touched on 3 or maybe even 4 sides.

i would like to get 100 to 200 mw of power in a green and really i want to make it on my own.

i know i will need a camera, ir glasses, and green glasses, a driver, a 808 nm diode, and a crystal set(btw which types of crystals? i think i read somewhere vanadate and ktp crystals), expander lens, and collimating lens

 

[Murudai]

DIY green? Even the most experienced and hardened DIY masters on this board haven't attempted to make a DIY green because it is too hard. You need professional equipment to do it.

So no offense to whatever skills you may have, but no chance man. Just buy one, it'll save you the headache

 

[Mikos]

It is doable. Five years ago I have build pulse Nd: YAG laser (pumped by gas discharge tubes) with 2 kW peak power (it was school project on Physical week organized by Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering). With Q-switching (LiF crystal as Q-switch), peak power has been 3 MW! When I added KTP crystal, it generated second harmonic (green) without any problems.

But of course this is very different configuration... but IMHO it should work. But you will definitely need optical board.

 

[Murudai]

I guess it depends on what you want to make.

If you want to just get green to spit out on a lab setup, you could. But if you want to build a pointer it would be really tough.

 

[Maven]

well lab was my first goal

then i was planning on trying pointer

i just really would like to make my own... mostly because people keep saying it is so hard...

it looks like the main thing would be keeping the crystals parrallel ? and in line ?

 

[Cyparagon]

ANY diode found in an optical drive of any sort will never be multimode.

 

[Glaserfan]

Contact wannaburn(he's here on LPF). He has been experimenting with modifying/making greens. Be prepared for a process that requires much time and patience.

Ohh.. this may help.. DX greens for example.. These are basically 3 or 4 different styles of pointers. Each one in those groups is sorted out according to the power it puts out, and labeled/sold as its PEAK poower rating. The crystals and their alignment are the main factors in the output power. Two of the same exact model pointers may have a HUGE difference in power.

The crystal in any pointer you want to mod is most likely producing as much power as it is capable of, which means you'll most likly be in for a crystal change. Heatsinking it may help stability, but in the end you may just end up burning up the crystal by applying more IR power to it.

 

[Maven]

well i am not sure about the crystals in these dx pointers but on sam's laser faq thing it looked like that these crystals were pretty durable as far as how much power you feed them ... but then again i think it was talking about larger sized crystals as well

 

[Maven]

I was speaking with another member from this board who offered me a crystal set out of a 50mw laser from dx.

i was wondering how powerful of a pump diode do i need to power a 200 mw crystal set?

is it possible/likely that the crystals out of the 50 mw laser will be able to produce 100 - 200 mw?

what kind of current would the pump diode need?

on another note,

I think i am going to go aluminum shopping tomorrow. i will be building a new host for my dx true 30mw laser that i butchered.

 

[chaosfourever]

coolz

 

[Maven]

... i never found any aluminum around large enough diameter i have one more place to check then i guess i will order some...

 

[diachi]

DIY green? Even the most experienced and hardened DIY masters on this board haven't attempted to make a DIY green because it is too hard. You need professional equipment to do it.

So no offense to whatever skills you may have, but no chance man. Just buy one, it'll save you the headache

Actually I've seen a few do it, wannaburn, just to mention one, it is possible, its just more difficult than your average DIY.

If you want a big crystal set, I hear the 5 and 10mW ledlights have pretty bulky crystal sets.