JDS Uniphase 2214-20SLMD laser! (PIC HEAVY)

micheal rosen · Dec 23, 2015

Good news everyone! The laser just arrived! I just tested it (1/2/2016) and it works great. the fan and controller have arrived, and here are your beampics!!!
So here it is!

it was built in 2000 by JDS uniphase, and rebuilt by the national laser company in 2009. Im VERY surprised by how bright it is, its beam is easily visible, even on idle! its dot makes enough scatered light to cast a shadow from 40ft away, on full 8A.

AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL WAITED FOR: LAZ0R PR0N (beampics)
sadly the true cyan color did not come out in the pics

and don't mind my comforter on my bed... i know its childish but i don't care :na:

you can see my oclaro 900mW red in a 501b host with a solid copper heatsink (and case for my other lasers).

this is my entire rainbow except for a cheap red laser that LEDed but still makes a nice cat toy. notice: no lights were on in the room at the time, that's all laser power. from, L to R: 405nm, 445nm, 488nm, 532nm, 635nm.

a nice beamshot. this one shows the color better, but is still way off.

a close up of the dot at 40ft. its about 25mm wide, and at aperture its only like 1mm, so this has a damn good divergence. the edge of this dot is closest to the actual color (the one in my sig is almost perfect too). this beam is a perfect gaussian beam too :3

same dot, through safe glasses to show the "gaussian-ness" better.

a cool shot, though you cant see the argon well

the whole collection though you can't really see the argon.

Well there you go folks, thats mah laser! Its a very nice color IRL. Its cyan, but if you put a 450nm next to it, it looks green. If you put a 532nm next to it, it looks blue, which i find very interesting. I would like to sincerely thank daichi and H2Oxide for the help in setting this thing up and helping me get it to run the first time (you wouldn't believe how many questions i bothered them with, i must have sent 50+ PMs to these guys), and Cyparagon for selling me a controller and a fan. This wouldn't have been possible without these guys, and this laser would probably still be sitting on my kitchen counter as the most expensive, heaviest, largest paperweight ever if it weren't for them, so thank you guys.

Encap · Dec 23, 2015

Re: JDS Uniphase 2214-20SLMD laser on the way!

Very nice find!
Something different, something special.
Best of luck with it!

The argon-ion laser was invented in 1964 by William Bridges at [[Hughes Aircraft] and is one of a family of ion lasers that use a noble gas as the active medium.
Argon-ion lasers are used for retinal phototherapy (for diabetes), lithography, and pumping other lasers. Argon-ion lasers emit at 13 wavelengths through the visible, ultraviolet, and near-visible spectrum, including: 351.1 nm, 363.8 nm, 454.6 nm, 457.9 nm, 465.8 nm, 476.5 nm, 488.0 nm, 496.5 nm, 501.7 nm, 514.5 nm, 528.7 nm, 1092.3 nm
Which lines actually lase are sensitive to both tube current and gas pressure and thus the color balance (relative intensity of the various wavelengths) will shift as the tube heats up and with age.

Sam's has a lot of information on them here: Sam's Laser FAQ - Argon/Krypton Ion Lasers

diachi · Dec 23, 2015

Re: JDS Uniphase 2214-20SLMD laser on the way!

Going by the model number this is a 20mW 488nm head. The SL denotes single line, 488nm. ML for multi-line, GL for green line and so on. The two numbers before SL tell you the rated power, in this case 20mW. It did come with a power supply too, right?

A fan/ducting where required is always nice too, although they don't always come with one.

Controller schematics can be found on Sam's FAQ if you didn't get a controller with it - Can usually get away with a DB25 connector, some wire, a pot or two and a DMM. You *don't* want to run it full tilt all the time, they are designed to run at 8A tube current. They'll run 10A but this will substantially reduce the life of the tube if you run at those currents constantly.

Congrats by the way!

micheal rosen · Dec 23, 2015