Axicons to combine diodes for a single beam.

[The_Doctor]

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[The_Doctor]

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[p1t8ull]

I do like the idea of the axicon, but I think in practice the engineering involved to create the assembly would be a real big headache.

[p1t8ull]

Unless I'm missing something...

Actually, no. People are already doing more just aligning different beam heights on a platform and getting them through dichros to a single coaxial beam. Lots of people here do that ok.

Unless I'm missing something...
Aligning RGB lasers or knife edge combining you have both near and far field adjustment to align the beams (even if it's simple placement of a laser head or mirror mount) but with an axicon you have a solid optic that means you technically have no far field adjustment. It would be like trying to align an RGB with all the dichros in solid mounts, wouldn't it?

My other concern is making it stable. Look at the thermal drifting issues a certain German diode combining company have had with a relatively simple design.

Not saying it's impossible, just not as easy as it sounds

[The_Doctor]

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[p1t8ull]

I am certain that anyone who can put an RGB projector together will find this easy

Then we'll have to agree to disagree

[The_Doctor]

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[dave]

I think he is saying that your method to align will not work very well.

TBH, I'm inclined to agree with Simon on this one. By doing it with a axicon, or mirror cube, you remove the ability to adjust each face separately, meaning near field AND far flied alignment will need to be set by position AND angle of each laser. Now how are you going to do that whilst keeping everything extremely stable, and in a way that's relatively easy to do, and repeatable? I cant think of a way that's as straightforward as edge combining..

At the end of the day edge combining works, and Simon has proved that without a ounce of doubt, why make something more complicated(and expensive) than it needs to be?

[The_Doctor]

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[MechEng3]

I had toyed with the idea of something similar but using off axis parabolics. This was done in an effort to help collimate the beams. After attempting it.......it was soon dubbed as a nice lesson , but not a viable solution. Going to have to side with knife edging. Very nice idea...and may work quite well with enough 3 axis mounted lasers on top of lab lifts.