The Golden Jewel of my Laser Enthusiast Career

[Sigurthr]

So, with my recent BST thread sales and making a huge effort to save as much money as I can while selling whatever I don't need I've been able to set a bit of money aside. The money I've made has had to go to pay towards medical bills and debts, but it felt too defeating and self-sacrificial to put all the money towards that, so I worked out an awesome little gift to myself:

Coherent 31-2230-000 594.1nm Helium Neon Laser & matching power supply.

This laser is New (Old Stock), made in 2000. It has been cared for by Dr. Sam Goldwasser, and Phil Bergeron of University of South Florida. The two of them have done extensive tests on it, most of which are documented on RepairFAQ. It meters in at 4.16mW. My crappy thermopile LPM shows it as 5mW, but that's more than close enough given the inaccuracy at low levels. It is truly a beauty, in pristine condition and starts up easy.

Here's a bunch of photos I shot:

I put up a shelf just for my HeNes. I don't leave the 594 on, but the 632 servers as a night/accent light.

The 632 is a Melles Griot 05-LHR-911 that I beheaded and mounted on a psu. It does about 850uW as it is near end of life.

These photos are from Phil at USF:

I've yet to photograph this laser with my DL589, but I have compared the two, and even given the vastly different output levels you can still clearly see how much more yellow 589 is. 594 is like a warm sunset.

p.s. you may notice a hip flask in a few shots; this is actually a parabolic reflector for my PC's wifi antenna. It gives over 6dB gain!

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Truly a beautiful laser! Mine does about the same, hovering at about 4mW as well. It truly looks golden in your pictures to match your thread title to boot! I salute you sir with an all four color HeNe beam rainbow of max power at all lines! :tinfoil: that shot over your shelf of the yellow shows the color wonderfully!

In photo:
Spectra Physics Model 127 - 46-48mW @ 632.8nm
Melles Griot LOR-150 (bare tube 151) - usually around 3.5-4mW @ 611.9nm (though I've gotten up to 6.24 before)
Melles Griot LYR-173 @ 3.8-4.15mW @ 594.1nm
Melles Griot LGR-193 @ 4.2-4.3mW @ 543.5nm

 

[clansley]

Looks great!

 

[BowtieGuy]

Hey Sigurthr, that is a great gift to yourself!
You could probably consider this as "medical treatment"; it's got to make you feel better just looking at it. :yh:
After seeing that golden beam, I can't imagine how people can still wonder what the attraction to the yellow/orange wavelengths are?
Thanks for sharing. :beer:

 

[bdgreenb]

@UK is it just me or does the camera make your rainbow appear ~10nm blue shifted. The 543 looks less like mountain dew and more like traditional 532, the 594 looks more yellow than 589, but it might just be my monitor.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

They look perfect to me on my phone.

though my tubes are a bit stronger than most of the usual ones, the green in particular, plus the fog, so the intensity might have thrown the camera a bit. Bit I compared the shot the the real thing after and they looked identical to me. I took several shots to make sure it came out correctly.

 

[Sigurthr]

@UK that green is an incredibly hot specimen. I've never seen (photos/person) one over 2mW.

I need to get a 543 again. I had a 200uW one a few years back that I resold. One day I'd like to finish the collection, but I'm in no rush now.

Re: color accuracy. It varies wildly based on display and camera settings. On my monitor and phone the very last one of my personal photos shows the 594.1 correctly. All the others blue-shift it too much and it looks like 586 or so. The third image looks closer, at what I'd guess to be 588ish. In person it has a very warm golden sunset color.

Btw, one thing I forgot to mention in the OP is the divergence on this unit is incredible! Certainly the best of any gas laser I've ever had. It measures in at a whopping 0.72mRad! This is outstanding when you remember that there are no lenses in a HeNe! The beam diameter is also very thin, at less than 1mm @ 10cm from aperture. It's also a perfect TEM00 and doesn't mode hop or have any stray light.

I shot some pics with my 589 on as well. It really swamped the camera despite using HDR settings. It was far, far better than standard auto-mode, but still not the best. You can't really appreciate the difference in wavelength through the pics but I think they're pretty awesome shots anyway.

The ghost beam under the 589 is an artifact from reflection on shitty camera window.

The last two images are simply a different exposure setting.

Hey Sigurthr, that is a great gift to yourself!
You could probably consider this as "medical treatment"; it's got to make you feel better just looking at it.
After seeing that golden beam, I can't imagine how people can still wonder what the attraction to the yellow/orange wavelengths are?
Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, it certainly does make me feel better to see it! Even if it isn't running, just glancing up at it on the shelf makes me happy. I've been in love with these lasers since I first saw one, nearly 20 years ago!

I still think that anyone who questions the value of a yellow laser hasn't seen it in person.

There's only one other laser that I'd absolutely love to have, but I don't think it will ever come to fruition; a Ruby laser. Much like with the 594.1 that I saw some 20 odd years ago, at the same time I saw a working Ruby in operation. I believe it was a "two gillette" Ruby, air cooled, and about the size of a football. I remember that if it was defocused using a lens you could ablate black ink right off of a document, if held at the right distance. These days, I think it would be a privilege just to see modern video or photos of a working ruby... an honor for sure to see one in person.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

@UK that green is an incredibly hot specimen. I've never seen (photos/person) one over 2mW.

I need to get a 543 again. I had a 200uW one a few years back that I resold. One day I'd like to finish the collection, but I'm in no rush now.

Re: color accuracy. It varies wildly based on display and camera settings. On my monitor and phone the very last one of my personal photos shows the 594.1 correctly. All the others blue-shift it too much and it looks like 586 or so. The third image looks closer, at what I'd guess to be 588ish. In person it has a very warm golden sunset color.

Btw, one thing I forgot to mention in the OP is the divergence on this unit is incredible! Certainly the best of any gas laser I've ever had. It measures in at a whopping 0.72mRad! This is outstanding when you remember that there are no lenses in a HeNe! The beam diameter is also very thin, at less than 1mm @ 10cm from aperture. It's also a perfect TEM00 and doesn't mode hop or have any stray light.

I shot some pics with my 589 on as well. It really swamped the camera despite using HDR settings. It was far, far better than standard auto-mode, but still not the best. You can't really appreciate the difference in wavelength through the pics but I think they're pretty awesome shots anyway.

The ghost beam under the 589 is an artifact from reflection on shitty camera window.

The last two images are simply a different exposure setting.

Yeah, it certainly does make me feel better to see it! Even if it isn't running, just glancing up at it on the shelf makes me happy. I've been in love with these lasers since I first saw one, nearly 20 years ago!

I still think that anyone who questions the value of a yellow laser hasn't seen it in person.

There's only one other laser that I'd absolutely love to have, but I don't think it will ever come to fruition; a Ruby laser. Much like with the 594.1 that I saw some 20 odd years ago, at the same time I saw a working Ruby in operation. I believe it was a "two gillette" Ruby, air cooled, and about the size of a football. I remember that if it was defocused using a lens you could ablate black ink right off of a document, if held at the right distance. These days, I think it would be a privilege just to see modern video or photos of a working ruby... an honor for sure to see one in person.

I agree. Ruby lasers are pretty obscure now in a lot of ways. and as for the yellow divergence, yeah it's spec'd at .8mRad so that's probably accurate. mine is about the same. they don't need lenses, they just grind the surface of the OC to get the beam to come out the way they want for whatever application the head was intended for. my SP-127 has around a .6 mRad divergence. It tends to get better the longer the HeNe, as the bore gets wider and the margin of error on alignment gets more picky and specific.

 

[Sigurthr]

Quite amazing what they can do with HeNe production tech, isn't it?

The 05-LHR-911 I've got on the shelf next to it has a divergence nearing 3mRad, haha. It was the worst in the lot that I had repaired, and that's why I beheaded it and relegated it to 24/7 duty. It was underpowered and a hard start two years ago when I made that decision, and it is even worse now. When it finally dies I won't shed a tear.

 

[Cel]

Now that is a beautiful color! :beer:

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Quite amazing what they can do with HeNe production tech, isn't it?

The 05-LHR-911 I've got on the shelf next to it has a divergence nearing 3mRad, haha. It was the worst in the lot that I had repaired, and that's why I beheaded it and relegated it to 24/7 duty. It was underpowered and a hard start two years ago when I made that decision, and it is even worse now. When it finally dies I won't shed a tear.

It truly is amazing...gas is such a wonderful medium, and I'm saddened that it is getting progressively more and more expensive as it is phased out a bit. I think HeNes will likely have their place for a while longer, though DPSS has definitely started impacting them too now. Much like ion lasers, they're steadily disappearing. it's particularly a shame that helium neon lasers are not made with external mirrors anymore. The options and stability they offer tend to be so much better, but the catch is that they also have to stay clean... and they're far more expensive to make.

 

[upaa27]

So jealous of you guys. :cryyy:

 

[crazyspaz]

Beautiful color. Glad you were able to get it I know you have been talking about wanting one for a while, its always nice to finally get something you have been wanting for a long while. Even better when it lives up to your expectations!

 

[Atomicrox]

Fantastic laser, congrats!

 

[IWIRE]

Glad you gave yourself a gift and thanks for sharing it. That is beautiful !

 

[Sigurthr]

Decided to do another shoot today. Enjoy!


594.1nm Yellow HeNe Y-Axis Scanner - YouTube