Dual C-mount with single focus lens?

[Jmillerdoc]

Just curious if anyone has tried or seen this. The C-mount has a unique physical attribute that would appear to allow you to mount two of them "emitter to emitter" where both emitters nearly touch each other. Bringing them in this close proximity of each other should allow the use of a single focus lens to create a near single beam. Thoughts on this? Has it been done? Would most likely require a very efficeint TEC. You could even mount them on the edge of seperate heat sinks and bring them right up next to each other.

Interested to hear thoughts on this. May be an easier (but expensive still) way to get a very high output red over 8w using two of the 4w diodes.

Tell me if this is a bad idea. I am certain there must be some drawbacks to this other than the density of heat created by two diodes in such close approximation.

Thanks,
Jmillerdoc

 

[Speedy78]

I better idea would be to knife edge or shoot them through a pbs with a focus adapter for each and then a main one for the combined beam. You would most likely get some odd chopped off 2 rapidly doveging beams with the above mentioned method and 1 focusing lens.

 

[Cyparagon]

You're forgetting about the bond wires, Mr Miller.

 

[crazyspaz]

You are tlaking about something resembling an F-mount diode, right? F-mount

Kinda looks like two c-mounts mushed together...these things also come in crazy high powers, and are single emitter.

 

[Jmillerdoc]

I wasn't thinking of having them touch each other. Even considering the bond wires you should be able to get them close enough to use a single lens, shouldn't you?

As far as knife edging and PBS's go, this was an idea to avoid all the extra work in going those routes. I'm not saying it is the best solution, I'm just curious if it is a viable solution that may give reasonable results. I am also curious if it has been attempted. I've got two 1w red c-mounts I bought some time back and was thinking of trying to experiment with them like this. I haven't looked at the wires on them in a while but I don't recall them sticking out too terribly far. I'll go back and look. I suppose they could be superimposed on each other where the wires from one slip between the wires of the other....if you wanted to get them that close. Agian, just doing a little mental masturbation over this.....

 

[Speedy78]

I have a 10W 808 f mount and its basically one large die on a heatsink. Cant recal it have multiple emitters but I could be wrong. Its a beast of a diode for sure! The thibg with your idea, bond wires out of the solution, is that you have two points of origin for the light and you want to focus it to the same place. You may get "decent" though i doubt it, results up close but at a distance it would be worthless.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

You are overestimating the size of the imaged source. I would also guess two beams diverging from each other best case. Or, are you talking about putting them OC to HR? Not a clue what would happen there. If perfectly aligned, perhaps you could achieve a higher peak energy, but that doesn't change how much "optical flux" a single facet can handle.

 

[IsaacT]

I would just use a PBS cube and lenses for each. You may be able to get them close, but even a millimeter js going to be enough to ruin it. I imagine is would come out looking like a cone instead of a beam as the space between the dies would be in the spot usually taken by the central die on a typical build.

 

[Jmillerdoc]

All interesting suggestions and theories on what would happen. Guess the only way to find out would be to attempt it. Don't plan on it though, just doing a little mental masturbation over it. I really need to spend time delving into optics and the ohysics of laser light and optics. This is an area I have only topically covered since I got into this "hobby" three years ago. Just wondering if anyone here would have a good suggestion for reading material for someone like me. Learning all the driver circuits, workings of a SS LD, and construction of a laser was pretty easy, I had a fairly extensive knowledge of electronics going into this. Optics is really where it seems lasers start to become complex, and for this reason I have invested my time elsewhere until now. While writing this I will admit I haven't looked at the sticky's on that thread, but if anyone knows of something better or anything more than what's there, please let me know. I've collected literally boxes of optics over the past two years but haven't done anything more than admire them sitting in their respective boxes. It's likely most of the things I've collected are perfectly useless for lasers but I wouldn't know until I start learning more on this.

I really appreciate everyone's time in entertaining my questions on this. I really love how this forum and it's members are so willing to help others learn.

Have a great week, back to work for me,....
Jmillerdoc

 

[IsaacT]

I would say research lenses. Pick up a college physics textbook from half price books and check out the optics section. That should give you a good baseline understanding for how lenses alter the path of light.

 

[Cyparagon]

Even considering the bond wires you should be able to get them close enough to use a single lens, shouldn't you?

No. You would need at least a mm clearance to safely avoid shorts, and the bond wires rise at least a mm above the output facet. This means your emitting area is effectively >3mm. For comparison, a single emitter in a cmount is typically 2um x 150um. The divergence is already terrible with a 150um emitter. You'll get something resembling a beam with the right optics, sure. But it'll be more like two adjacent beams, and the divergence would make it all but useless.