Omni Series 43 Ar/Kr laser problems

[ultimatekaiser]

Thanks. I will continue to read what's required for alignment, and see if I can source a hene laser... At this stage, if it only took me one whole day to get it aligned I'd be more than happy.

Indeed. A hene is preferable, but anything green will at least somewhat penetrate the mirrors. The white lights are harder due to the mirrors being broadband.100mW is a bit strong for such a task, and unsafe, but jtd work with some care as long as it can make it through the bore cleanly. You may have to learn how to disassemble the head to get the mirrors out to really have a good chance. But that means they'll need cleaning, and the fiber re-installed so on so forth... This will be a big task for you...

 

[Cyparagon]

A HeNe isn't useful unless you're WAY out of alignment, and it only helps with HR if I remember correctly. If you can get it to lase (even a flash) by moving either/both mirrors, you're doing okay. There are many tutorials available on alignment.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

A HeNe isn't useful unless you're WAY out of alignment, and it only helps with HR if I remember correctly. If you can get it to lase (even a flash) by moving either/both mirrors, you're doing okay. There are many tutorials available on alignment.

I'd beg to differ. I do know what you're getting at, but it's quite hard to find a flash on these due to how narrow the bore is. though I will say they are fairly tolerant mirror wise. there isn't really a way to rock the endplates, but you can do a search pattern top to bottom if you know the other mirror is aligned properly. I usually use a small green HeNe mostly for reference, rather than as a guide. its helpful for getting the OC correct. though the HR is pretty much totally reflective at most everything, though it does transmit a little green iirc. its simple, but time consuming. the hard part is getting the HeNe through the bore, then you can reflect the beam back into the HeNe and by extention you know its close, then tweak and perfect from there. I actually found that I can use internal retro-reflections on the narrow brewster stems to help center it to get your first light, then walk the mirrors into place pretty readily. I'm making the assumption he needs to start from scratch, but that may not be the case. if he's only messed with the HR, then it would be more worth while to just search with that mirror.