The Big Green Thread (I'm gonna regret posting this in the morning)

[steve-o]

Big Green Airlines proudly announces the arrival of the long awaited 10 mm long KTP crystals. And while my Vandate has a tad too much doping for its length, we are cleared for takeoff. Prototype manufacturing starts this weekend.

Steve

Well, best wishes for a smooth flight, no turbulence, or lost luggage :]

[chad]

Let me know when you get it a little further along. I will turn it into cad and machine some stuff.

chad

[mixedgas]

Chad, the thing I need right now is a very smooth steel roller to convert Indium wire to Indium foil. Indium wire is cheap. Indium foil is a rip-off.

Say 1" diameter or a bit smaller,by 3-4" long fine polished finish with a .250 " -.001 / + .010 tolerance hole down the middle for a shaft. The lathes I have access to, do not do very fine finishes. Stainless Steel or hard iron is fine.

I'll roll it on a lubricated glass plate.

I thought of doing a nice hand cranked machine for calendering the Indium with two rollers, but that is a lot of work.

I need to pick the battles I fight, and making a machine is not one of them.

Steve

[macona]

Looks for TGP shafting. That is Turned-Ground-Polished. It has a very nice finish. Or go to a shop that repairs hydraulic cylinders and get an old rod from a cylinder. These are hard chrome plated and can be had for almost free.

I wonder how one of those pasta makers with the rolls would work?

[mixedgas]

At .005" thick I think that would be pushing the Spaghetti Monster.

TGP sounds good, if I were not commuting a hour each way, I'd find some.

Steve

[macona]

I have an small piece of 1-3/8" 17-4 stainless TGP I had left over from a job where I was making some air cylinder rods for one of the wineries. I will send it along with those KTPs. Hmm. I might have some chromed 1" too.

[mixedgas]

I have an small piece of 1-3/8" 17-4 stainless TGP I had left over from a job where I was making some air cylinder rods for one of the wineries. I will send it along with those KTPs. Hmm. I might have some chromed 1" too.

Got the KTPs from Lithuania (Ex Soviet Researchers turned capitalist, GOOD STUFF!)
Could really use the 1" rod.
Let me know about your Q-switch driver issues... The 108 Mhz sounds doable with a modified Fleabay 10 watt FM tx amp.

Steve

[planters]

OK, update on this end. I have one order in for fairly conventional laser crystals and am waiting on a quote (somewhat dreading, actually) for some custom engineered crystals.

One outstanding question is how beneficial the fiber coupled vs the free space diode pumps will really be. There are compromises with each in power, mounting, cost and the quality of the mode matching. If the pump focal spot runs @ something like 2/3 the diameter of the fundamental mode in the laser crystal then does the homogeneity of the pump intensity affect the final doubled beam quality? I think we may just have to try both and so I am going to get some.

I also believe I have some decent designs for the laser crystal mounting block as well as the pump diodes. I may just make these up out of Al and we'll see where they fall short.

[planters]

The pumps are ordered. The custom crystals are ordered. The optics are ordered ( and a few have arrived). The investment is SUBSTANTIAL. The plan is to work on the high end and as this proceeds trim the project toward lower and lower powers/beam quality. I am not sure if there will be much progress over the holidays, but we'll see.

[als1980]

Ok, so after just reading this we are kind of on the same path here, exept im targeting the higher power and $ audience. But both paths are very similar. I have a tom of $ sunk into this already. A lot of high power diodes, crystals, etc.. Any work taking place near Staten Island, NY? Anything I can help out with? I know a few things im looking for to move foward if anyone has laying around... Adjustable optic mounts, optical breadboard, and some kind of mount/heatsink for the crystal/diodes, similar to the video a few posts up. I have both fiber coupled and plain diode bars. I just got 2 Nlight diode stacks ive been dieing for. Just have to confirm power output/drive specs. But I belive they are 700w CW each. I have the drivers for them (i think) but dont want to cook them so I need more info on them. In any event, if anyone is near Staten Island im always looking for help. Right now I have a huge stockpile of stuff with no specific plans as to which way I want to go with it..