Repairing a green laser pointer

[WarFreak131]

Hey guys, a little while ago, I burned out a green laser diode that I had. I screwed the housing apart, and saw the various components; the piece with the IR diode itself, the expanding lens, and the focusing lens.

Now the only thing I could imagine that went wrong is the diode itself. So I figured I can replace the diode. However, I don't see where there would be any KTP or YAG crystals in there. I can't see it too well since it's extremely small, but are the crystals built onto the diode itself? I wanted to buy a new IR diode to replace the old one, but will that work?

 

[grainde]

Im guessing you mean a DPSS 532 green laser not a green diode? if you want to see how a green is put together, just type "DPSS 532" or "532 schematic" into the search bar, youll find a lot of info!

Anyway youd probably be better off buying a new green, as the IR diodes by themselves are quite expensive.

What kind of laser and what power was it?:beer:

 

[jeffreythe00]

I don't have time to give you a lengthy response right now but I can tell you that its not as simple as replacing the diode. I'm assuming this was a cheap greenie otherwise you wouldn't have taken it apart . At least I hope it was cheap! You are better off buying a new laser. If it was one of those cheap pen laser off eBay. It would cost you nearly the same amount of money to replace a pump diode as the laser cost itself. That doesn't even include the time you will spend realigning the pump with your crystals...

Sorry your laser died

 

[WarFreak131]

Im guessing you mean a DPSS 532 green laser not a green diode? if you want to see how a green is put together, just type "DPSS 532" or "532 schematic" into the search bar, youll find a lot of info!

Anyway youd probably be better off buying a new green, as the IR diodes by themselves are quite expensive.

What kind of laser and what power was it?:beer:

Yes, I did mean to say a DPSS laser. I understand how they work, which is why I didn't throw out the laser and decided to try and replace the diode

The one I bought was just the diode/housing with no driver, and was advertised on eBay as 100 mW. So in reality it's probably 50mW. And taking a look at Wikipedia, which says that green ones are typically around 20% effocient, so the IR diode was likely around 250mW. I looked on o-like.com, and theyve got a 500mW for $12.

 

[grainde]

Yes, I did mean to say a DPSS laser. I understand how they work, which is why I didn't throw out the laser and decided to try and replace the diode

The one I bought was just the diode/housing with no driver, and was advertised on eBay as 100 mW. So in reality it's probably 50mW. And taking a look at Wikipedia, which says that green ones are typically around 20% effocient, so the IR diode was likely around 250mW. I looked on o-like.com, and theyve got a 500mW for $12.

Well you can buy a 100 mW 532 from fast tech for $10 (actually advertised as 50 mW) so the diode is around the same price as the whole laser module!! Anyway have a look here if you're interested: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/mini-review-50mw-green-module-fasttech-80522.html

If you do decide to buy an IR diode instead, it will be an interesting experience to try and focus the IR and align the crystals. Not many on LPF have tried it, so be sure to post how you did it!

Just one word of warning make sure that you read up on the dangers of IR and that you have proper IR blocking laser goggles! If you don't already have some, Id recommend Eagle Pair. I have have a couple of sets of the EP1's, which block between 190 -540 nm AND 800 - 2000 nm and they work very well. Make sure you get a set that block from 800 nm or slightly lower as the pump diode is 808 nm! I say this because there is another set of EP's on the SL website, which only block from 900 nm...:beer: