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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Spectra physics Spitfire pro

Joined
Jul 31, 2010
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Hi Guys.
As promised, here are some pics of the laser system that I use at work for ablation. We have 4 of these setups. 3 are the Spitfire pro and the other is an older Hurricane.

I will try and explain how it works:

The Spitfire Pro is a Ti-Sapphire amplifier/oscillator, that delivers highly accurate sub 100 femto second pulses of 650-1100nm radiation with pulse energies up to 2.5 mj. Peak power of each pulse is about 350KW!!! We choose 800nm as Ti-sapphire is most effecient at this frequency and we pulse at 5khz

spitfire.JPG


The seed laser is a Spectra physics Mai Tai Ti-Sapphire laser. We use this laser because of its capability to deliver sub 100 femto second pulses. Such short pulses are necessary to ablate materials, without destroying the surrounding area. Basically the pulse is so short, it vapourizes the target material so quickly that the material cannot conduct any heat to its surroundings.

Maitai.JPG


The spitfire amplifier itself needs to be pumped and for this setup, we use a Spectra physics Empower, this laser is rated at 60W and the wavelength is 527nm. This laser is a ND:YLF DPSS laser, it too is pulsed with energies of up to 30mj, not sure of the peak power on this.

empower.JPG


60w.JPG


The purpose of the spitfire is to amplify the pulses from the Maitai seed laser, we then use the laser controls to select and release the pulse that we want once it has been amplified enough at exactly the right moment, we use an external highly accurate frequency generator to achieve this
controls.JPG


once we have the pulse we require, it is shunted through an optics table and on to the ablation target.
optics%20table.JPG



The ablation itself, I cannot show you, as our setup is obviously industry sensitive. I hope you have found this interesting and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Best Regards.

Jason
 





HIMNL9

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AWWW ..... No beamshots ?

(just kidding, ofcourse ..... :p :D)

BTW, nice setup, you have there ;)
 
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Nice laser porn. Yeah, we want to see the burn spot produced with repeated pulses on something interesting. Put a hole in the center of a quarter. Thanks
 
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I will see what I can do. We don't have quarters, but I can maybe ablate a penny with a 10 micron line and show you the result at 1000x magnification. Beamshots i cannot really oblige, as we use a wavelength of 800nm which is only visible with an IR viewer (Night vision monocle). I will say though that the point of impact of the focused beam is bright white, due to the plasma formed by the laser pulses as it strikes the target. Our main target is high grade stainless steel, however a penny may give off green plasma, due to the copper!!, You have got me thinking now, lol

Best regards.

Jason
 
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Evolution - Do I have this wrong, but isn't the Mai Tai a UV pulsed laser? (and pretty scary on its own?) Or does it do NIR/IR output directly?
 
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Jul 12, 2010
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Thats pretty bad ass. I want one D:

I hope im not inquiring too much about your industry.. i looked up ablation and only found the concept of it. what exactly do you guys do? im assuming this is for research purposes?
 
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Evolution - Do I have this wrong, but isn't the Mai Tai a UV pulsed laser? (and pretty scary on its own?) Or does it do NIR/IR output directly?

Aryntha No, the Mai Tai is itself a Ti-sapphire laser pumped by both an IR diode array and a 532 or 527 pump. In the case of our system, its a 532nm, 15W millenia and a Prolite IR array all contained in the same housing. This combination allows us to choose any wavelength between about 650-1150 nm with 800nm being the most effecient. I do this on a computer screen. There are many different harmonics or frequencies occuring within the optical cavity and the computer allows me to select the wavelength i require.

The physics of how the software achieves this are a bit beyond my comprehension
screen.JPG


I believe it has to do with many different frequencies of light running in parallel, so you adjust those frequencies to make the waveforms in the cavity constructively interfere, once you allign the peaks to your output, you have your pulse and allow it to escape the cavity, only an SP engineer can confirm this, but from my understanding, this is the process.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best regards.

Jason
 
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Thats pretty bad ass. I want one D:

I hope im not inquiring too much about your industry.. i looked up ablation and only found the concept of it. what exactly do you guys do? im assuming this is for research purposes?

CrossOut: Imagine ablating a specially prepared surface, of a highly reflective material and imagine You are burning a barcode onto it at the micron level, now imagine you have a read head that is able to read this barcode and understand exactly the position it is in, to within 0.5 microns or under 1 arc second angular error, you could put a man on the moon.

best regards.

Jason
 
Joined
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Wow. that's a hell of a range for a variable laser, from visible to IR. So far I've seen the frequencies you're working with here being 800, 532 and 527, actively, is that right?
 




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