Homebuilt 3-5W Copper Vapour Laser System

[AngelG]

@diachi: As for the Na: I just thought whether the sodium-vapor lamps could be turned into lasers LOL. They already emit narrow band around 589.3 nm wavelength. But it turned out that such lasers do not exist. There exist 589 nm LASERs but they are complex devices.

 

[joeyss]

Yes, I do. One of the electrodes is insulated from the cooling cylinder with the bushing (on the photo) made of fiberglass and epoxy. It smells a bit when heated, but works well. Also there should be a correct temperature mode of the tube, cooling it too intensly may reduce performance of the laser because copper won't evaporate good enough and severe temperature gradients can occur which can cause the tube to crack. So, this water cooled cylinder, which doesn't have any direct contact with the tube, is enough for its thermal stability at the point that is recommended by the manufacturer.

As for lasing lines -- I cannot choose any of them freely, but I can suppress the green line by an orange filter, so only yellow one is present.

That one pic looks like a 561 are both lines together in the pic?

amazing

 

[FRITZ HID]

Sodium lasers do in fact exist, they're typically used in astronomy as "guide Star" lasers (i.e. Keck Observatory), their 589.2nm will harmonically florese sodium atoms at high altitudes to which sensors can then analyze for the atmosphere compensation systems.

 

[Cyparagon]

Sodium lasers do in fact exist

A laser is named after its resonating material, and those lasers are dye lasers, not sodium. A dye laser that contains no sodium is not called a sodium laser, even if it is used to illuminate sodium.

 

[joeyss]

Won't a regular 589nm leak a few uWs of 589.2nm if they can be multi line?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Actually, you're all wrong. the guide star laser is a special DPSS setup. And is mode locked at the sodium absorbtion peak. The original was two separate lasers that were mixed and doubled if I recall but I think I remember reading something about a doubled 1178 ring laser somewhere.

Either way...off topic.

Edit:
And yes cyp is right on the naming but yes there is a Na vapor laser. It exists and does infrared-So does Au IIRC.

 

[diachi]

Actually, you're all wrong. the guide star laser is a special DPSS setup. And is mode locked at the sodium absorbtion peak. The original was two separate lasers that were mixed and doubled if I recall but I think I remember reading something about a doubled 1178 ring laser somewhere.

Either way...off topic.

Edit:
And yes cyp is right on the naming but yes there is a Na vapor laser. It exists and does infrared-So does Au IIRC.

Actually, dye lasers are used too, less so these days due to the availability of suitably powerful DPSS (SFG same as we use in pointers, Second dye lasers have been and still are used.

Au vapor lases at 627nm.

I've not seen any commercial Na vapor lasers, just research systems, but they are IR.

 

[Laserbuilder]

That one pic looks like a 561 are both lines together in the pic?

No, this colour occured due to different camera settings.

 

[Cyparagon]

It's strange how sodium is so willing to generate incoherent light at super high efficiency, but near impossible (or at least prohibitively inefficient) to get lasing.

you're all wrong. the guide star laser is a special DPSS setup.

DPSS may be used as well, but dye is the main type as far as I can see.

Second paragraph: Source

Second source

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Interesting. I've never seen a dye one. I'll read over that. The latest one ive seen info on was a duo of separate yag lasers, which were then combined and doubled as a ring to generate SLM yellow.

Gold I'd forgotten but it has a couple lines, a red and I think a couple IR lines. It's off the top of my head but that sounds right. I have a paper on it somewhere. HeHg does an orange and a green too.

Most of the dye lasers I've seen were in medical /bio use. I've not really seen them elsewhere but it wouldn't surprise me.

Amazing to see a new CVL though. Big and expensive, but one of my favorites.

 

[Deleted member 16589]

Wow How did I Miss this thread until Now Awesome laser. A Copper Vapor laser Is on my bucket list of lasers to see.

 

[Laserbuilder]

Continuing to rebuild the Blumlein section of the power unit

 

[Laserbuilder]

A small update. Rebuilding of the power unit is in progress and the block with Blumlein generator is finished.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Very nice Laserbuilder. That is one power supply you have. :beer:

 

[Laserbuilder]

Yesterday I powered the laser on again. Its raw beam is visible even when the pictures are taken with the flash.

 

[CurtisOliver]

That is a lovely 510nm output you have.