homemade green laser

[australialaser]

hey everyone i have an old broken green laser and this thought came to my mind if a get a 1W IR laser diode and put the 532nm crystal lens infront of it will it work? or should i not even bother?

 

[aryntha]

Alignment (polarity) has to be exact. You can try, you might get some green - IF its *truly* an 808nm diode. Often they're "off" by 2-3nm, and won't get the DPSS action to occur.

You can certainly try. It might work. Try and get an IR diode that claims, at least, that it's exactly 808nm. -- and keep your eyes away from it. Try various orientations and distances.

 

[qumefox]

Actually pumps don't have to be (and usually aren't, in cheap greens) right on 808nm for the process to work. You just lose efficiency the farther from that the pump is. I've seen cheap 532's that have had the 808 line as high as 815nm before and they still worked.

And as far as putting a crystal set in front of a 808nm diode and it producing green.. That just depends on your crystal set. If it's a bonded pair that already has the appropriate coatings.. Pump and collimation optics are pretty much all you need, and alignment won't be super critical.

If you have discreet crystals and cavity optics on the other hand.. then the alignment of every single component will have to be almost totally perfect to get any green out.

 

[lazeristasUVISIR]

if a get a 1W IR laser diode and put the 532nm crystal lens infront

Other concern will be HEAT (and I mean a lot of heat compared to 5mW lasers) around a laser diode and a crystal. :can: No temperature control efficiency goes down significantly.
Though there are some remedies with improved crystals and fancy laser diodes. $$$

 

[australialaser]

Other concern will be HEAT (and I mean a lot of heat compared to 5mW lasers) around a laser diode and a crystal. :can: No temperature control efficiency goes down significantly.
Though there are some remedies with improved crystals and fancy laser diodes. $$$

yes i know they do het hot i might get a heatsink

 

[Bluefan]

The hybrid cystals make life easy, just putting them in front of a pump diode already gives green. A high efficiency on the other hand is much more complicated, but it should give plenty of green light. I've got something like ~70mW out with probably 500mW in, but the input power is a guess, I hardly tried to do it properly.

 

[Fiddy]

dont forget your IR glasses! Just because you cant see it doesn't mean it isn't there!

 

[honeyx]

hey everyone i have an old broken green laser and this thought came to my mind if a get a 1W IR laser diode and put the 532nm crystal lens infront of it will it work? or should i not even bother?

Sure you can and you will learn a lot by doing it. This will be also a much better experience than just reading about how it has to be done.

I´ve made a few pics while repairing a greenie.
Some Pics of decanned IR diode / fixing a greenie

There are also many other sources with more detailed pictures showing you how to do this, but this might give you an idea where to start and what to care about.