I have a few questions about ions

[djmatt]

OK
Is it true you can make a homemade dye cell?
Ive seen the youtube video of the TEA laser,but what about an argon?

DJ Matt

[buffo]

I think you can make any Ar or Kr laser a whitelight if you have a swiss bank acount

Not quite "any" Argon can be converted to whitelight... The problem is that smaller argons (EG: the ALC-60X or the SP-163) have a very narrow bore. That causes problems when you try to run the tube with a Kr/Ar mix. The gasses tend to separate along the bore. It's called cataphoresis, and it radically changes the electrical (and thermal) properties of the tube. Failure soon follows.

But for a tube with a sufficiently large bore (and equally large gas returns), you *can* re-pump the tube with a mixed-gas fill and get white light out of it. (Assuming you also change the optics, of course, and assuming the power supply can handle the lower tube voltage.)

Usually Krypton-only tubes are good candidates for this, as they typically have large bores to start with. (But many high-power argon tubes also have large bores.)

Adam

[mixedgas]

Buffo said, and I
Quote:

Usually Krypton-only tubes are good candidates for this, as they typically have large bores to start with. (But many high-power argon tubes also have large bores.)

End Quote

Coherent seems to use the about the same size bore for a given length tube, except for UV and Enterprise and and I300. so usually just about any coherent that is not sealed mirror with a solenoid fill system can whitelight, exceptions include I60. Tubes with glass fill capsules are not candidates.

I can add helium to the mix to whitelight small, narrow bores, the helium breaks up the cataphoresis, but it robs power and diffuses out quickly. 8:2:1 He, Kr, AR, but power is low. So the only way I can beat cataphoresis in a small tube is play around till I find a mix that is stable, and usually this means the power is spread across too many lines, instead of going into the four main lines.

So my prefered whitelight tubes are I90, I90 MRA, I70, some SP164, some SP165, ALC 909, HGM20 and in rare cases HGM-5 or 68B. The only small tubes worth doing are 543/643, or some bigger ILTs, unless you just want blue and yellow.

The HGM 5 will whitelight nicely, just the power is spread out over 10 or 12 lines, great for a planetarium with a PCAOM, but not so great for anything else. A good new five tube will whitelight to 800 mW with special cooling, but you get perhaps 75-100 mW of 514 as the most powerful line.

Steve

[djmatt]

Oh wow!! This is what I find so fascinating about all this, is how the gas mix, bore and tube size all play a role in what color you can get!! I think Im going to need another notepad soon..
I would say lets whitelight my SP 165..but I like that one too much!!lol
Having 10 lines would be nice for a mobo!!! But that would be it..
It also sounds like getting the tube is half the battle...the price of optics is the other half
I think Im starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel
Ok other than optics what makes some lasers have more lines than others?
For ex.
Ive got 2 SP165s
One is doing 9 lines of color (thanks to mixedgas)
The other is only doing 7
and if I switch the optics around nothing changes... Is it pressure? or gas fill?
of and both were at 30amps.
Oh and is there something to the numbers on the optics?

DJ Matt