The Quest for Orange HeNe's! (604nm / 612nm)

[Trevor]

Just for record, we're not considering 589nm, 593.5nm, and 594.1nm orange. Those are yellow / gold / amber, whatever you want to call them.

What we're looking for in this thread are the two orange HeNe lines at 604nm and 612nm. Below are links to three warning labels from my website (594.1nm, 604nm, and 612nm) so that the color of the beam on the label shows the slight difference in color that we're dealing with.

[ 594.1nm / 604nm / 612nm ]

Here are aryntha's posts on the topic so far:

...there are no Orange hene lasers left. Period. I talked in depth to Melles Griot, JDSU, and REO. None of them can or do make them anymore, nor do they have any surplus.(I even had a guy crawling around the CVI/MG warehouse for a few days -- nuthin.)

I don't know if the use they had was obsoleted quickly or what; it just seems that very few were ever produced .

Well, never give up hope.

I even contacted some laser suppliers overseas (such as Laser2000) and even some chinese companies that were advertising them in their portfolio.

Zip.

Through known channels and the people who made them, and eBay, they're simply gone.

543, 594 and of course 633 are still actively made. Doing 612 or 604 is mainly a matter of bore size and mirrors, (and, of course, yield) - but all I can figure is that there simply is no remaining market for orange lasers. Nothing that red or yellow can't do as well or better.

In other situations it was because a diode or DPSS replaced many uses... this obviously isn't the case with orange HeNe.

I wish I had resources back in the 1980s and even early 1990s when JDSU and MG still actively produced 612.

... That said, there have to (well.... should) be some somewhere. Somewhere we don't know. I'm absolutely game on starting a LPF 612nm HeNe Task Force to try to locate the impossible, though

Well, I sent out feelers once again to Jain Lasertech, in India, who does claim that they still make them. I've not been able to get a positive response in the past.

First things first is help for research. Maybe we can start a new thread on this in the Gas or Colored section, and folks can try contacting potential companies even about a possible production run. (For example, REO tells me they don't make them; but they may have the mirrors still available and possibly could produce a run of them. I don't know...)

Also, finding out what they were used for. I have some vague information that they were used in particle counters, and PMS (Partcle Measurement Systems) was a division/sister company to REO (Research Electro Optics) , and made their "Lasair" particle counters.

I know most PMS Lasair particle counters use a run of the mill 632.8, but I believe some used 611.9. If some folks could branch out and dig on that, aned see if it's true, that'd be one way to help.

Here's what we've found out so far, flagged by member name:

• 604nm
  • (twhite828) This wavelength has been used to excite DiD/Lipid dye (document). Though in researching the dye here it seems that dye is even more responsive to 632.8nm and more so to 650nm. I wrote an email to a professor involved in that study yesterday (2011.01.25), but have not received a reply. The paper was published recently (2010.09.23). The study was conducted at McGill University in Montreal, QC, Canada.
  • (twhite828) This wavelength was referred to as an absorption band of dodecaphyrin, though it is doubtful that a 604nm HeNe was ever used; they reference using a "594nm" and "633nm" HeNe a paragraph later. The document is copyrighted 2008 to Wiley-VCH, a German publishing company. It appears to be from a chemistry textbook.
  • (twhite828) A 604nm HeNe was used (in addition to a 594nm and 632.8nm) to irradiate a surface to determine the surface's roughness. The study hinged on these three wavelengths. The paper is copyrighted 2009; the study was conducted at Kocaeli University in Kocaeli, Turkey.
• 612nm
  • None yet.

Anything that gets posted here will be credited and added to the OP.

Happy hunting!

-Trevor

 

[LSRFAQ]

How badly do you want that line? Is the REO tunable simply out of price range?
The tunables show up on ebay, all you have to do is outbid Dr. Goldwasser.

Every once in a while my local surplus place gets anesthesia analysis systems with a hene with a one brewster tube and a internal prism. They get 75$ a unit. Buy 3 or 4 units and eventually you will score one that lases.

Or buy a SP124 and add the prism or a birefringent tuner, but this requires a machine shop.

I have some old Brewster prisms.

If I set you up with the connection, what is in it for me? If I tell, there goes one of my sources for good laser gear.

Steve

 

[Trevor]

I'm a college student on a budget, collecting gas lasers because they're just interesting. I can't afford to buy up things hoping they'll lase - though I do appreciate the gesture.

-Trevor

 

[Meatball]

Its a generous gesture though. There are a few members here who are passionate about saving some of these systems from completely disappearing. Many forum members find common interest in seeing these members get such exotic systems, knowing that they will be preserved in good hands.

Any info you have to share is for the better of the lasers themselves, not the laserists. The rest of us just get a kick out of an orange beam shot.

So you say an HeNe with external mirrors can be changed via an added tuning prism?

Are HeNe's like Ions in that they will lase even without a wavelength specific HR and OC? Just with a tuning prism?

 

[aryntha]

I really hope to end up with a 604nm and/or a tunable here. And of course I'm always looking for 612.

Steve; I'm not sure anyone could potentially offer you anything but money (and even then, not limitless amounts ) -- I'm not a connected person. I will say that I'm not the sort who will spread a source about. I know you can't know that, but I would like the opportunity to prove it. I'm certainly not a kiddie with a burn obsession.

I've asked Dr. Goldwasser about the 604/612 switchable large metal tube Raman systems; but he keeps telling me that I "don't want that" - apparently because its hard to get lasing if it's ever messed up. (He also thinks I'm crazy for wanting these lasers... and insists I'll get 'bored of lasers' any time now) - I do want it, but I'm under the impression he's not going to sell that to me.

The tunable, of course, is another story. While I could just hold my breath and trust shipping, it's going to be an adventure getting it here and a lot of nail-biting moments either way. I do wish I still lived out east, as I'd drive up and get it myself.

I know with a lot of the professionals, like yourself, Steve, a lot of us hobbyists don't have the most excellent reputation (as a group). I know that time and my actions are the only thing that can prove my reputation there.

That said, a number of people who are engineers now probably remember experimenting with HeNes early on.

Personally, I'd like to save some of these systems from eventually losing their soft seal or ending up in a landfill.

 

[cheech226]

:bumpit:
lo and behold i have found the grail:knight:

no, i was very lucky that events came together and i was able to buy one!
pix are coming.
the spot is perfect, i can't wait until dark!

 

[Trevor]

:bumpit:
lo and behold i have found the grail:knight:

no, i was very lucky that events came together and i was able to buy one!
pix are coming.
the spot is perfect, i can't wait until dark!

I hope you know I hate you. Well, maybe not. Actually, maybe just a little.

Fortunately though, I'd rather not invest more money in lasers, so it made that an easy decision.

But yes... you have the Holy Grail. Treat her well, friend.

Trevor

 

[daguin]

You have now been assimilated by the 612nm Borg

Your designation will be "5 of 5"

Peace,
dave

 

[Solonar]

I believe I have a couple of the HR and output lenses from the first MG builds of the 612nm hene's.

They may or may not work with some of the double brewster tubes, because I remember that they used a slightly different mix and pressure of gases than the 633nm tubes. That may have changed when they actually went into production, so I'm not sure(that was 25 yrs ago).

 

[cheech226]

thank you dave :wave:

 

[Dr_Evil]

Does your source have more?

 

[benmwv]

CHEECH GIMMIE PIX NAOW!!!!

Pretty please?

 

[daguin]

Does your source have more?

:crackup: I have bought EVERY 612nm HeNe I have EVER found

I still own one and I have sold one (to Cheech226)

There is no "source"

These have not been made for some time

When you come across one of these,
it is usually from an old skool laser show
or somebody's Dad's collection being sold in an estate sale

Peace,
dave

 

[piferal]

you can buy a tunable HeNe but the price is

 

[daguin]

you can buy a tunable HeNe but the price is

Tunable HeNe's "in the wild" are just as rare as (if not more rare than) 612nm HeNe's

Peace,
dave

 

[Cyparagon]

I'd venture a guess that VERY few of our members have ever paid more than $2k for a laser. Prices above that don't really apply to us.