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Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 watt LD

D

disma

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Joined
Sep 23, 2007
Messages
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Well, I have come to the conclusion that this laser is just a T.U.R.D.  ;D...  "Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent", and there is no way to collimate this thing! does anyone have any ideas on how I might get this thing collimated decently? I have tried quite a few lens's, an I am useing a microfilm viewer lens currently. or is it just imposible to colimate a fiber laser diode? I can focus to a point a foot or so from the laser, but making a good beam that doesnt spread to a foot at 15 feet away I have been unable to do.  :(

Max
 





Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

Tried using multiple lenses?
I dont know if this works; but I'd try sticking another lens at the focal point of the first one?
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

it may be difficult, IR diode arrays are known for having extremely bad beam profiles - but yea i'd probably try a second lens
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

ya, ive tried it to a certain point, but it still diverges, I have a perfect image of the fiber end projected on the wall accross the room from the laser.

Max
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

Max - sounds to me like you need either a fiber collimater, or a grin lense for that beastie :-)
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

hmm, I think ill try polarizing it first, I have seen fiber colimators on ebay, I thought that just putting a convex lens in front of the fiber would do it, it does let me burn stuff very well but not at any distance. How is a grin lens different from a convex? and what can I expect from this laser? Is it worth spending any money trieng to collimate this diode? or will it still be a very poor beam even with the grin lens?

Max
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

I was wondering if anyone has tried to rip one of these apart and remove the fiber coupling stuff, to get at the laser diodes?

Max
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

You can remove the fiber pretty easily and end up with a plain IR diode array (just an array bar mounted to a heatsink). Its worth a lot more with the fiber though.

Its not really uncollimatable, but keep in mind your beam specs are gunna be horrible. Now we're not just talking about horrible multi-mode diodes, but we're talking about a bunch of them side-by-side. Translation: HORRIBLE beam. Even collimated, you're gunna have to expect either a HUGE beam diameter, or bad divergence.
 
Re: Totaly Un-collimatable Really Divergent 17 wat

its still prety powerfull even big, It will burn stuff when its half an inch accross... how big are we talking about with a colimated beam? it would still be quite awesome even with an inch wide beam... plus im still not running it at full power. and I also thought the same thing about tearing into it, I dont want to, just was wondering about it. polarizing it didnt do it any good... makes it weaker. (duh) thats cuting half the power out. Its still a fun laser, and a lot smaller than a co2 and I had a blast building it!

Thanks everyone for helping me out with it.
 
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