Rebuilding 1 watt combined red laser

[laserfreak3d]

Hi all

Just wanted to share my latest project with all of you  

Originaly this laser was a 1 watt mixed laser  
The original diodes where

4x 635 nm 250 mw  

Sadly when i got this one all the diodes where dead    :'(

So at the moment im trying to give this baby new life
The plan is to replace al the dead diodes with

4x 655 nm open can 250 mw diodes.
These specific diodes are capable of  350 mw +
And are brand new factory sealed diodes not harvested ones

The reason why i am not replacing them with 638 nm diodes is
Because the cost 130 euro's a piece at 110 mw
It should be possible to get about 1 watt of 655 nm after all the optics
Also the entire assembly is tec cooled so with a little bit of luck this should  give some extra power
And change the wavelengt from 655 to 653 dont think that more wil be realistic.
If even 2 nm is possible with 5-10 degrees diference in temp

In the pictures its running 2 diodes  on 25% power giving about 205 mw at the moment

 

[laserfreak3d]

Coments and tips are always welcome ofcourse

also have some 1 watt greens for repair here but wil be doing those at a later time

 

[laserfreak3d]

Seems a bit quiet on here
btw anybody seen andy_con online recently ?

 

[Danjoo]

Hi

Looks good, why only two running?

And what kind of mirrors you use, wtb?

Thanx

Daniel

 

[laserfreak3d]

Hi

Looks good, why only two running?

And what kind of mirrors you use, wtb?

Thanx

Daniel

Hi Daniel

Stil waiting for more diodes to arrive
So should have it up and running on full pwr somewhere next week

 

[ElektroFreak]

While that is really cool, I can't help wondering why go that route when you could build a 1W red laser with just 1 c-mount diode? Seems a bit overcomplicated.. That looks like a fairly professional build, so I guess it could be from before 1W+ red diodes existed affordably. Now you could try to modify it to take c-mounts and use 4 of those to make it a 4W monster... [smiley=evil.gif]

 

[potatorage]

Hi

Looks good, why only two running?

And what kind of mirrors you use, wtb?

Thanx

Daniel

Those look like front surface mirrors, and he also uses PBS cubes

 

[laserfreak3d]

While that is really cool, I can't help wondering why go that route when you could build a 1W red laser with just 1 c-mount diode? Seems a bit overcomplicated.. That looks like a fairly professional build, so I guess it could be from before 1W+ red diodes existed affordably. Now you could try to modify it to take c-mounts and use 4 of those to make it a 4W monster... [smiley=evil.gif]

problem with cmounts is that there very expensive at those power levels

1 watt cmount @ 635 nm costs 788 dolars

And there beam quality is crap without expensive correction optics

and with the diodes im using now i should be able to get between 800mw  - 1 watt of power depending on the loses in the optics and the variations in the diodes them selves

 

[ElektroFreak]

[quote author=ElektroFreak link=1232705491/0#5 date=1232813513]While that is really cool, I can't help wondering why go that route when you could build a 1W red laser with just 1 c-mount diode? Seems a bit overcomplicated.. That looks like a fairly professional build, so I guess it could be from before 1W+ red diodes existed affordably. Now you could try to modify it to take c-mounts and use 4 of those to make it a 4W monster... [smiley=evil.gif]

problem with cmounts is that there very expensive at those power levels

1 watt cmount @ 660 nm costs 788 dolars

And there beam quality is crap without expensive correction optics

and with the diodes im using now i should be able to get between 800mw  - 1 watt of power depending on the loses in the optics and the variations in the diodes them selves

[/quote]



That is true.. you're definitely getting more bang for your buck with your current setup. Definitely very cool, and undoubtedly fun to mess with!

 

[laserfreak3d]

[quote author=laserfreak3d link=1232705491/0#7 date=1232872825][quote author=ElektroFreak link=1232705491/0#5 date=1232813513]While that is really cool, I can't help wondering why go that route when you could build a 1W red laser with just 1 c-mount diode? Seems a bit overcomplicated.. That looks like a fairly professional build, so I guess it could be from before 1W+ red diodes existed affordably. Now you could try to modify it to take c-mounts and use 4 of those to make it a 4W monster... [smiley=evil.gif]

problem with cmounts is that there very expensive at those power levels

1 watt cmount @ 660 nm costs 788 dolars

And there beam quality is crap without expensive correction optics

and with the diodes im using now i should be able to get between 800mw  - 1 watt of power depending on the loses in the optics and the variations in the diodes them selves

[/quote]



That is true.. you're definitely getting more bang for your buck with your current setup. Definitely very cool, and undoubtedly fun to mess with![/quote]

yes thats true although i must say that 635 nm does look a lot nicer then 655-660
but could always make a mixed laser out of it

 

[Switch]

How do you combine 4 beams? Do you need to use polarization filters? :-/

 

[laserfreak3d]

How do you combine 4 beams? Do you need to use polarization filters? :-/

yes i need to use a polarized combiner cube
normal combiner cube wil gave to mutch loses

 

[andy_con]

looking good mate, im about to start my "red" project soon.

gona start at 1watt then work upwards

 

[laserfreak3d]

looking good mate, im about to start my "red" project soon.

gona start at 1watt then work upwards

what diodes are u going to use mate ?
ill be using the long open can diodes at 350 -400 mA

there normaly rated for 150 mw cw According to the spec sheet
but the should do 200 -250 mw without mutch problems

 

[Cyparagon]

How do you combine 4 beams? Do you need to use polarization filters? :-/

one beam is placed very closely to another (resembling TEM[sub]01[/sub]). The same is done with the other two. The two "TEM01" beams are combined with a cube. The beam is then shrunk with two lenses. (think beam expander in reverse)

Maybe you've seen the picture of phillip's project. I'd rather not search for it at the moment, but he combined 23 diodes using this method. Due to his lossy optics, he only had 1.8W total, though.

 

[andy_con]

[quote author=andy_con link=1232705491/0#12 date=1233156363]looking good mate, im about to start my "red" project soon.

gona start at 1watt then work upwards

what diodes are u going to use mate ?
ill be using the long open can diodes at 350 -400  mA

there normaly rated for 150 mw cw According to the spec sheet
but the should do 200 -250 mw without mutch problems

[/quote]

yeah same open can diodes.

gona order some optics from edmund this week hopefully