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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Under the hood of an OPO Tunable

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So I got the chance to take some horrible cell phone pictures of a couple of the systems at work.

We have a OPO (pulsed) laser which has been out of commission for quite a while now, so we were disassembling it. We had to remove all the loose optics and power/water lines that are a part of it.

Optical Parametric Oscillators are essentially laser cavities that you can tune to lase at any wavelength from around ~400nm to 800nm and beyond. With a little motivation, a BiBo crystal is pumped with a Nd:YAG laser @ 355nm or 532nm. The BiBo reacts by producing idler and signal photons, which (in opposite polarizations) can be separated and - if those wavelengths produced are matched with the proper angle of the BiBo, you can tell these photon pairs how to distribute their energy based on that angle.

(I'm trying to read through the user manual)

This thing is basically a full blown water cooled Nd:YAG with a crystal assembly in front of the beam.

Continuum, Inc. : Panther EX OPO : OPO, pump energy, injection seeded, non-injection :: Tunable Laser Systems

The YAG does its triple harmonic generation thing, and pumps with BiBo cavity with high energy photons. Those photons are converted to two lower energy ones. If you want to think about as frequency doubled conversion in reverse- except cooler.

Here are some of the photos.

This is the YAG laser. You can see the pump chamber and lasing cavity in a couple of the photos. Don't remind me that I only had a cell phone on me at the time. I was caught off guard about this procedure.

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^^Here you can see there are actually TWO pumping chambers side by side. The apertures are behind the two enclosed optics above the blue power supply box. Not sure why the two pumping cavities. An extended lasing cavity??
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^^Aperture end of the YAG. You can see the enclosure of the THG LBO crystal. (I *think thats what it was)
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^^The lasing cavity :)
You can see the mirrors and the pump chamber very well
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Now for the OPO. Look at the photos with this beam map in mind. (Yes! That is a KTP) The tuned output of the OPO can be optionally doubled as well.
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Again, I'll apologize for the photo quality. It was a once in a fellowship opportunity, and all I had was my phone. I thought you guys might like to see the inside as much as I did.

I also have the users manual in hand if anyone really wants to read it. I'll see what I can do about photocopying it. Its got all the goods of how the thing works.

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Oh, and here's an Innova 300 series Sabre laser. A UV line centered Argon for those who also didn't know. :)

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Ask if you have any questions!

-Tyler
 





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So, basically its a 355nm YAG laser that pumps a particular set of optics that behave like a laser... at whatever wavelength you want.

When we get it back from repair, I'm going to set it to 428nm, 573nm and 610nm just for some photos lol.
 
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so, basically its a 355nm yag laser that pumps a particular set of optics that behave like a laser... At whatever wavelength you want.

When we get it back from repair, i'm going to set it to 428nm, 573nm and 610nm just for some photos lol.

yes pleasee!!
 
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You better. I'm going to keep my eye on this thread... indigo, lemon yellow and orange all from one laser, that's amazing.

Now, understanding a little about DPSS (however not at this level), are 428nm, 573nm and 610nm all main lines? As in, you can't generate 430nm or 426nm? Just curious about the capabilities of this thing.
 
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You better. I'm going to keep my eye on this thread... indigo, lemon yellow and orange all from one laser, that's amazing.

Now, understanding a little about DPSS (however not at this level), are 428nm, 573nm and 610nm all main lines? As in, you can't generate 430nm or 426nm? Just curious about the capabilities of this thing.

These are lines that I simply plan to choose. Its goes anywhere from 400nm - 2.5um. It doesn't work so hot at 700nm though...

Pump with 355nm for the 400nm-700nm range,

pump with 532nm for the 700nm-2.5um range.

double the frequency again for wavelengths around 205nm.

I'll be waiting to get this thing back from repair. I'm as eager as you are!
 
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All I need is an address I'll meet you out by the back door;)

P.S. I have a full tank of gas and I will bring pizza pockets if you say yes:bowdown::na:
 
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That's awesome... too bad these probably cost a fortune...
Can you take a request for 480nm? :)
 




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