Eight Diode Knife Edge Array - best practice?

[Laser57]

Lots of work! I tried Peltier coolers for a 1000 watt block of RGB LED's once, too inefficient, but if running off of a 12 VDC system with a big enough alternator, works. For lasers, if fins and air aren't enough, water is the only reasonable choice at those power levels. Way off topic, but if interested, here is what I built back in 2014 which used lots of TEC's to keep it cool: https://imageevent.com/qdf_files/tec...ndlaserproject

Any takers on the question I have regarding whether the eight diodes can be properly expanded if they form a eight point circular knife edged output pattern into a spherical beam expander? Guess I can just build it and see. I've ordered the parts, but will take some time to arrive.

[Laser57]

Victor, have you ever tried putting the output of a 4X or more knife edge into a spherical beam expander? I am trying to determine if a knife edge output can be used with a beam expander without obvious distortions to the beam outputs when in either of these patterns:

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Or

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My NUGM04 laser diodes arrived, just before they were to be sent regular post I decided to have them air courier shipped to me. Mirrors also on the way, should be here soon, so this can go together without too much delay now.

Chris

[VDX]

... not yet - as I have enough sources "strong enough" for my needs, this "knife-edging" was only by chance with the received setups.

Could be an option for later, when I'll have to combine several of the 200W-diodes for some Kilowatts power ...

*** EDIT *** -- but wait, I've tested one of the 270W-diodes with a beam-expander - something below 1:3 it resized the 5x7-grid without much distortion ... then it was too big to fit completely into the open path ...

Viktor

[Laser57]

Thank you, quick response too. OK, seems the knife edge array will probably look OK through a spherical beam expander, I will try the

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....and see. Appreciate your thoughts on this. The NUGM04 diodes with the gBall intact each produce more than 6 mRad, but also output 1.6 watts of 520-525 nm.

[VDX]

... good luck!

Viktor