DTR's Laser Shop: Diodes-Drivers-Lenses-LEDs & More

[planters]

Agreed. If he doesn't get around to measuring, I'll do it when I get mine. If it is, indeed, a smaller NF beam, are you going to redo your blue monster?

Funny you should ask. I am currently finishing up a couple of pretty powerful satellites. The fact that they are portable has made me rethink the semi-permanent installation of my optical table based projector . So, while I finish these first two I am laying out a portable enclosure for the big components including the "blue". Until these latest posts, the only change was going to be to combine stacking with the current knife edging to get a better aspect ratio on the scanners. So, the near field dimensions of these diodes are very important. They could dictate a whole new arrangement.

[absolom7691]

Funny you should ask. I am currently finishing up a couple of pretty powerful satellites. The fact that they are portable has made me rethink the semi-permanent installation of my optical table based projector . So, while I finish these first two I am laying out a portable enclosure for the big components including the "blue". Until these latest posts, the only change was going to be to combine stacking with the current knife edging to get a better aspect ratio on the scanners. So, the near field dimensions of these diodes are very important. They could dictate a whole new arrangement.

Can't wait to see more of your work if you do edit your stacking configuration. The thread you started when you first unveiled that project was like a bomb that went off. The machining and cooling you used for the blue and the red was awesome. The whole project, in general, was great. I wish I had the time, money and machine shop to knock something like that together!

This question is knowing nothing about dye systems beyond the concept. With enough 445s, would you be able to pump a dye system with these, stacked and focused down for cw operation?

[planters]

Yes you could....BUT.. you probably wouldn't want to. Dye systems are all about power/area and somewhat less about power/volume. Pulsed pumping is a way to sort of "cheat" and allows poorly concentrated/focused and even non-coherent pumps to reach high enough power levels ( VERY roughly 100KW/cm2) for dye lasing. Once limited to CW then extremely small focal spots with high gain cells are needed and alignment and focus can be a nightmare. Also the conversion efficiency just above threshold is quite low.

Mixedgas was helping an amateur to get a single 445 diode pumped jet dye to lase and he succeeded, but just barely.

I assume you know about N2 pumping, but that's not practical other than as a curiosity.

Almost any Q switched doubled YAG and this becomes super easy and practical and even if you went all the way and invested in a LS, probably cheaper than a 445 diode set up that MIGHT produce anything usable.

P.S. just ran the first satellite tonight. Nice.

And now back to the OP

[megaton]

Thanks Jordan

Things are here

Cheers,
Ed

[DTR]

Thanks Jordan

Things are here

Cheers,
Ed

Great. Enjoy.

[absolom7691]

Parts arrived, did a quick and dirty setup for the Osram PLTB450

I am using Jordan's 405nm-445nm AR Coated Three Element Glass Lens for the collimator

Note: The diode orientation that I use is with the stripe horizontal

NF results (before prism pair):
10mm from aperture: 1.3mm x 5mm
60mm from aperture: 1.5mm x 5mm

As for far field, I wasn't able to test much simply because I don't have the room inside and I didn't get a chance to run this outside. I wanted to get a 20m test, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. For now, using Dave's anamorphic prism pair, at 20' (yes, feet) the beam was slightly squared off, but I had to look at it through goggles before I could tell that it was squared off. At 20' the beam was 4mm and looked really tight. Like I said, tomorrow I am going to run it 20m and measure and take some pics. Looks like we'll still need to correct these, but from what I could see, they look damn good corrected and the best we are going to get for graphics... for now.

[DTR]

Nice. Thanks for the update. Pretty much what I expected. After playing with these for a few days you can really tell the difference when looking at the beam in comparison with the M140's. These do have a really nice and tight beam looking at them side by side.

[swamidog]

fantastic! can you tell me more about the "Jordan's 405-445" lens?

Parts arrived, did a quick and dirty setup for the Osram PLTB450

I am using Jordan's 405nm-445nm AR Coated Three Element Glass Lens for the collimator

Note: The diode orientation that I use is with the stripe horizontal

NF results (before prism pair):
10mm from aperture: 1.3mm x 5mm
60mm from aperture: 1.5mm x 5mm

As for far field, I wasn't able to test much simply because I don't have the room inside and I didn't get a chance to run this outside. I wanted to get a 20m test, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. For now, using Dave's anamorphic prism pair, at 20' (yes, feet) the beam was slightly squared off, but I had to look at it through goggles before I could tell that it was squared off. At 20' the beam was 4mm and looked really tight. Like I said, tomorrow I am going to run it 20m and measure and take some pics. Looks like we'll still need to correct these, but from what I could see, they look damn good corrected and the best we are going to get for graphics... for now.

[chad]

I am interested too

chad

[DTR]

I am sure he is talking about the three element(Aixiz) lenses I sell. They are some of the lowest cost lenses out there giving pretty low divergence for the A/M140's but they have a lot of power loss and a good amount of splash.