Seven 8-20 watt lasers @ LaserFabrik Utrecht

[Benm]

Very nice new footage

I visited the Utrecht University Sol exhibit, featuring the 7 lasers beaming onto the dom tower. To my surprise, we were allowed into the room where the lasers projected from - the window glass was removed against reflections.

Nice thing is that we got a good look of the freezer-sized laser units they used. Also, i had a bit of a chat with the German guys running this show, and they popped out a laptop to show me some photographs of the inner workings and diagrams of the conversion specifics.

It turns out that they used a sophisticated process of subharmonic addition to obtain wavelengths like 442 and 628 nanometers. Seeing these up close is simply amazing, and the engineering on these units is extremely advanced. Too bad i did not get to take any of the information home with me, but i can testify its well beyond anything we see here. If you're interested, the production cost of these units was in the order of $200.000 each, but they are no longer made as mobile units due to alignment problems with moving.

Anyway: Check out these pictures: Photos of LaserFabrik Utrecht II - Equipment and beams - Merghart.com - its probably something you'll never see again. And for those living in/around holland: The lasers can be visited between 8 and 10 pm until saturday.

 

[Benm]

PS: I've seen the people at LaserFabrik have been reading about their work on PL and here on LPF. If you're around, please let me know if you are interested in high resolution pics of your work here in Utrecht!

 

[Krogith]

Cool stuff dude! :beer:

I can't wait i need a few more colors and then i can do a real nice photo set like that.:beer:

 

[daguin]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. That must have been amazing.

Peace,
dave

 

[Meatball]

So by subharmonics, you mean each of these systems are solid state?

Are they OPSL? Or DPSS perhaps?

 

[millirad]

Surprised to see the inside of the exhibit. Great to have a "backstage pass" for the event.

 

[532 with Envy]

These are great photo's, I wish we could do something like that here in the US without a whole bunch of other troubles!
Also I noticed in the inset photo above the Yellow seems to hit the wall and then continue on from there. I'm sure it's just some trick of the eye and camera, still kind of funny.
Thanks for sharing these with us:beer:

 

[viro]

wow that is amazing :drool::drool::drool:

 

[Benm]

So by subharmonics, you mean each of these systems are solid state?

Are they OPSL? Or DPSS perhaps?

They are all solid state indeed, and all derived from 1064 nm!

The green is plain DPSS, but the red and blue are derived via wavelength splitting and recombination. The process involves an IR line that is phase matched (using a delay line) and is added to the 532 or 1064 to create the other lines. I've never seen that construction before, but it evidently works very well.

Also I noticed in the inset photo above the Yellow seems to hit the wall and then continue on from there

Its hard to see in the picture, but the wall is actually a wood pane, and they simply drilled a hole trough it for the yellow beam. Well, i assume they drilled it, but if they didn't it wouldn't take that long to 'magically appear' at these power levels

 

[weeba2kv]

Laser kunstwerk boven Utrecht | nufoto.nl | De laatste nieuwsfoto's zie je het eerst op NUfoto.nl! for pictures

 

[SLPbum]

I cant stop from looking at those pics, Amazing.

RDCII

 

[weeba2kv]

My girlfriend is getting sick of me and my laser bla bla lol
all i see /hear is your laser stories websites .
I go like yeah watever go buy some shoes or something.

 

[Benm]

Nice pictures at nu.nl weeba!

Its quite interesting how big the impact of exhibits like these is.. many people in town are talking about it while they normally don't have any interests in lasers at all. I think we should have more public displays like these - some people would like this to be a permanent exhibit, perhaps active one evening a week or something like that.

The people here like light art installations: we also have (arguably) the tallest christmas tree in the world every year... with lights hanging on wires from >1000 feet transmitter tower. Gerbrandy Tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for a picture of that.

 

[danefex]

Wow, awesome pictures!!! I would have had a hard time controlling myself around those beautiful beams... Thanks so much for sharing, those pics are amazing

 

[Antoniio]

Wow man, amazing pics!! And awesome powerful lasers!