Hi everyone,
first time poster here. I would like to use a laser as a heat source to start a chemical reaction (forming an alloy out of two metals). Having to heat it through quartz with a flame is not very efficient for large volume. The reaction is exothermic, so I just need to have it started somewhere and it will melt the whole thing almost instantly. I was asked to to find an optical solution to this and I went to a lab at a university to heat a thermocouple with a laser and see how well it would heat it. I used a 532 nm 10 W Verdi laser by Coherent (adjustable) and I could raise the temperature to 560 C with a 3.5 W output.
As you can see, I do not care about wavelength distribution width (or noise), the modes or anything, I just want energy, fast to avoid dissipation. What would you guys suggest to get? I looked at wicked laser's arctic 3.5 W and looked at aliexpress high power lasers. But looking at some threads here, wicked laser has bad reputation and aliexpress gives big numbers and the reality is "low" power output.
This is an R&D project so I want to be able to test it fast (fast shipping to Canada), be sure of what I get, and have something cheap (if it gives good reliable results, money will not be an issue).
Thank you!
first time poster here. I would like to use a laser as a heat source to start a chemical reaction (forming an alloy out of two metals). Having to heat it through quartz with a flame is not very efficient for large volume. The reaction is exothermic, so I just need to have it started somewhere and it will melt the whole thing almost instantly. I was asked to to find an optical solution to this and I went to a lab at a university to heat a thermocouple with a laser and see how well it would heat it. I used a 532 nm 10 W Verdi laser by Coherent (adjustable) and I could raise the temperature to 560 C with a 3.5 W output.
As you can see, I do not care about wavelength distribution width (or noise), the modes or anything, I just want energy, fast to avoid dissipation. What would you guys suggest to get? I looked at wicked laser's arctic 3.5 W and looked at aliexpress high power lasers. But looking at some threads here, wicked laser has bad reputation and aliexpress gives big numbers and the reality is "low" power output.
This is an R&D project so I want to be able to test it fast (fast shipping to Canada), be sure of what I get, and have something cheap (if it gives good reliable results, money will not be an issue).
Thank you!