Nd:glass

[Coilgunner]

So, I'm contemplating building a high powered Nd:glass laser, and I read on Sam's laser faq that they apparently are only good for CW or high pulse repetition. That doesn't make any sense to me. If the thermal conductivity of the substance is low, should it be run as a low pulse repetition pulsed laser? The faq also says that the rods occasionally get damaged from the UV emission of flash lamps. Is that a significant concern?

Thanks,
Coilgunner

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Many NdYag rods are pumped with Xenon flash tubes. The SSY-1 is only one example of a pulsed yag. I coated the pump cavity on mine with barium oxide (The stuff hospitals use to xray your butt ) to convert some of the UV to useful light.
I suppose if you blast anything enough, it will bleach out the dopant.

Mike

 

[Coilgunner]

Yeah, I know that you can bleach the dopant. I'm not going to be pumping it anywhere near that much. I'm talking about damaging the substrate, the glass part of Nd:glass, so substrate from Nd:YAG doesn't really apply. Plus, I'm dealing with a really high peak power and output energy (such is the nature of Nd:glass).

I'll definitely check out using barium oxide to coat the inside of the pump chamber. Or maybe not, apparently it is pretty nasty stuff (irritant, potentially lethal if ingested, that kind of thing)

Thanks,
Coilgunner

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

You are thinking about BeO, Berillium oxide,   BAD stuff.  Barium enemas are the non toxic things.  Also used orally ( Rasberry flavored)  for upper GI.  I got the rasberry stuff from the hospital and washed it many times to get rid of the flavor "stuff".   I don't know if the coating gained anything as I had sufficient pump power.

Mike

 

[henrystal]

this is used for pulse laser ,i think nd :yag crystal is better

 

[Cyparagon]

Nd:glass is usually pulsed, but can be CW with the proper doping and cooling.

 

[Coilgunner]

Alright, thanks. I'll probably be building an SSY-1 just to get some experience with pulsed 1064nm lasers. Then I'll go all out on the 15J Nd:glass.