Homebuilt 3-5W Copper Vapour Laser System

[Alaskan]

Thank you for sharing photo's of your projects, I recognize the Soviet era parts, or if new, they still look similar.

 

[LSRFAQ]

FYI guys, sodium D1 will not lase. Sodium D2 will lase if properly pumped, but you need to seed it with an external dye laser to suppress a problem with a forbidden transition. So of course the cost of adding a dye laser and tuning it makes a true visible sodium laser not worth doing... I looked into that a long time ago. Some guide stars still use dye, but most have went to a SFM technique. The one I want to see in Spain is a Dye Laser pumped by a 60 Watt custom made Russian Argon...

I've read most of the translated Russian CVL literature, I went with the Bulgarian CuBR technology as I did not feel like taking a risk importing one of the sealed CVLs from Russia, when I could get Bulgarian tubes from a now defunct Canadian importer. Love the CVLs, but mine went to Arizona where it will be used by a fomer business partner, who can have more tubes made in the future. (No, not for Hobbyist prices) So I watch this thread with interest as I was drooling over the Krystal tube literature for years...

I've actually scanned graphics using galvos with a friend's CuBr with a special telescope and PCAOM fitted...

Some of the untranslated CVL literature is very interesting, I can read the graphs and look at the diagrams... I'd love to have a chat with Dr. GG Petrash some time...

Steve

 

[AngelG]

@LSRFAQ: Thanks for the NFO on the problems with the sodium quantum levels.
Wow ! That's smuggling I didn't even know about this CuBR technology of our ... who - instutute, factory ? There were factories for non-standard equipment also.
Unfortunately many technological caps we had are now lost.
A friend of mine suspects that the Great Powers have a conspiracy plot to make us to return to the jungles.

 

[Laserbuilder]

I'd love to have a chat with Dr. GG Petrash some time...

Very unfortunately, it is not possible now. He died in 2012, AFAIK. :cryyy::cryyy::cryyy:

His book about metal vapour and metal halide lasers is wonderful, I'd like to make a CuBr tube he described in many details when I find a good glassblower.

 

[LSRFAQ]

AngelG, Its not all gone, just principal staff have retired except for one or two guys. Also they got European grant to do metalworking etc. and went very quiet.

Not much market for laser show CuBr any more, and technology was/is open, to the level of complete drawings if you have access to academic papers..

There is still much Metal Vapor Laser research going on in former Soviet / Warsaw Pact countries and Russian regions away from Moscow... There are some Mid IR transitions that look promising for surgery... At least according to recent University Marketing Literature.

The Bulgarian technology has been licensed and I know of one company that still produces it for dermatology...

Frequency doubled Nd:YAG matured to the level that CVL was more or less obsolete, except for a few very specialized uses. I do know where a few large CVL are still in Use in the US...

End of Cold War was probably a good thing for a while, unless you need specialized materials of old, or wish to have a nation of manufacturing, and in US too, many good materials / technologies are lost as well...

Much went away as older Generation is not Internet savy and does not know how to exploit internet marketing.

example link:

METAL VAPOR LASERS Laboratory


Steve

 

[AngelG]

............End of Cold War was probably a good thing for a while, unless you need specialized materials of old, or wish to have a nation of manufacturing, and in US too, many good materials / technologies are lost as well...

You're right - only for a while.

I'm afraid that we may end up in something worse than the Cold War.

Back then, we were quite strongly afraid that the president Ronald Reagan will destroy the world in compliance with the USA's s fix idea for preemptive nuclear strike against Russia. (Beware, it's not yet completely gone, there are people still supporting it). We knew that the Russians even dead would be able to respond with the same kind of love, so the whole world would get destroyed in the nuclear winter...
Even dying from radiation sickness, you have 3 days to fight to death, having nothing to loose... Why would anybody need this ?!!

But what can be worse is the New World Order. (I removed what i had written here - was too dark)

 

[badboybilly]

This is awesome!! What els can I say!

 

[Laserbuilder]

Rebuilding of the main thyratron trigger circuit is in progress!

 

[Laserbuilder]

The thyratron trigger unit is complete! And it looks great together with the Blumlein section of the power supply. Moreover, I managed to squeeze some more power from the laser tube. I think that this is a practical power limit for this particular setup. I still don't know the output power, but the wood burning process with the focused beam is much more intense and the unfocused laser beam is brilliantly visible with ambient lighting in the room.

 

[Cyparagon]

A wooden box for electrical, and high voltage at that? You, sir, are quite confident in your assembly skills. One mis-step, and the box goes up in flames. When I make a mistake, I prefer a medium soot mark to a pile of char

 

[Laserbuilder]

Yes, you are right, wood is not resistant to fire. But all circuitry was tested before for a long time and only then enclosed in these boxes. Any parts those under HV don't havee contact with the case, air gaps between HV parts are wide enouph to exclude arcing.


Now I can say that the whole power unit of the laser is finished! It is only twice smaller than the original cabinet.

 

[Alaskan]

Looks like one of my ham radio transmitter projects from many years ago. How hard is it to get laser hobby parts in Ukraine? I may retire there in a few years.

 

[Laserbuilder]

How hard is it to get laser hobby parts in Ukraine?

It is very hard, big luck is needed.

 

[Laserbuilder]

Recently I have made and added all necessary nameplates for the power supply, and at the moment it is finished, though I hadn't tried some improvements of the HVDC section of it. Now I have to finish the laser head, only cosmetics is left.

 

[BobMc]

Man, this build is coming along quite nicely, very impressive. :gj:

 

[diachi]

Coming along nicely! I like the style you chose for the label plates. Assuming that voltage wheel turns a variac? Looks like it belongs on a submarine or something.