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Thread: ALC 60B KrAr Laser with Red Yellow Green Blue + UV optics?

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    Default ALC 60B KrAr Laser with Red Yellow Green Blue + UV optics?

    I just pulled an American Laser 60B laser head from a machine here. It is labeled KrAr and according to my research it's supposed to produce 6 lines - 351, 363, 488, 514, 568 and 647nm. That seems amazing, especially green and yellow at the same time, but there's a filter wheel in the machine with red, yellow, green and blue filters so it seems at least the visible wavelengths should be there. I am testing with an Omnichrome 150T/AA PSU that's been here for a while and I'm 90% sure is working well. Sadly, the laser has >5000 hours on the gauge and doesn't want to start. The igniter works and I see a purple flash in the bore on each tick. I'm seeing about 550V across the tube. The filament seems OK as well - not sagging and glowing nicely with 2.7VAC across it. It's also out of alignment due to the fact that 99% of eBay sellers have no clue how to pack delicate equipment > It shouldn't be too hard to re-align if I can get the tube to ionize.

    So, a few questions:

    - Has anyone ever seen a small KrAr laser making red, yellow, green and blue lines?
    - Any reason an Omnichrome 150 wouldn't work with this? I expect the tube voltage to be a bit lower than a plain argon head, but that shouldn't be a problem.
    - Any tips on how to get this going again? I'm already putting out feelers for getting it refilled, but I expect that to be expensive, especially given that it probably only makes a few 10's of mW when working well.

  2. #2
    mixedgas's Avatar
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    There are some special tubes out there.

    I've done it. If you want a more mind blowing idea, imagine 13 lines coming from a HGM5 into a Machida grating at 1.5 watts total CW power. BTDTGTS.

    Yes, its possible to do this in a very short tube with a very special gas mix. This requires adding a third gas during processing. That technique I have no intention of disclosing on this forum, in public. I might discuss it over the phone with your reprocessor or with you. I'm not sure if the patent is expired yet.

    Where you get clobbered on a 60X is the size of the gas returns. 60B is a hotter laser then the 60X family.
    60B has a large bore and bigger gas returns then a 60X, so its possible to do more with them.

    Yes, I've had a 60X run RYB, it cost me a small fortune to do it. It does really stress the psu, the Krypton can lower the running drop to as low as 85-90 volts, when the PSU is designed for 106 volts. The wider return bores on a 60B should help with that, allowing for a higher gas flow and less starvation of gas at the cathode.

    YES, they exist(ed) for biomedical purposes. Are they common, no.

    At least your using a 150 style. A ordinary Gold Box, not set up for this would be close to exploding if the tube started. If I was messing around with this, I'd add a 1 ohm or so, 250 watt, power metal cased resistor in series with the anode. Mixed gas Omni supplies tend to have mods for a higher starting voltage.

    I can send you to a company in Germany that has a track record of doing this.


    Steve
    Last edited by mixedgas; 01-25-2013 at 08:46.

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    Thanks Steve. Not sure how much effort I want to put into this. What are the chances of getting this ionized without reporocessing? I'd like to know that the optics are OK and it can be aligned reliably after it's unfortunate affair with UPS before putting a lot of time and money into it. I suppose since it's not aligned, I can disassemble it a bit and check the mirror and brewster surfaces. I suppose I could also use a hene to get it aligned enough to get a flash of coherent light at each igniter pulse and try to capture that with the OSA to see what it's made up of.

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    mixedgas's Avatar
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    I just remembered, 60B configured for Euro region can have a different head wiring scheme then 60X/532, lets persue that first, shall we?
    I might have one head to look at here, but I'm not sure.

    I'd be somewhat interested in seeing UV optics from such a short tube, cant be more then 0.1 mW or so. As in "NEVER HEARD OF IT BEING DONE DUDE..."


    Steve

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    I did a quick check to make sure I wasn't going to end up connecting AC (fan power) anywhere inappropriate before starting. Given that the filament is glowing, the igniter circuit is ticking away and there's over 500V across the tube, I think it's mostly right. Anything else I should check?

    One reprocessor has already questioned my sanity. The other may still be laughing too hard to reply to my message...

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