405nm 4-6x burner diode test

[drlava]

Hello everyone, here are some results of a blu-ray diode extracted from a LG GGW-H20L burner. Although this is an expensive burner to sacrifice, the bare diodes are MUCH more dear to purchase individually. The optical pickup unit is a two-lensed affair, one lens for the IR and red lasers and one for the blu-ray. In all, there are 3 5.6mm closed can laser diodes and 3 sensors, along with some interesting optics. The IR and red lasers are combined with a series of PBS cubes. The blu-ray laser travels through a plastic molded elliptical correction lens and then a PBS trapeziod. (photos later)

Here is a photo of the back of the laser:


and with leads added:


the casing and lead wiring match the Sharp GH04P21A2GE


The laser was installed in my testing device

and the current ramped at 5mA increments and the output allowed to stabilize for each measurement on a Scientech 365.


The diode performed well, topping out at over 70mW at 100mA input. Future tests with higher current are planned, along with a lifetime duration test. Also, kaz is working with one of these burners too, I believe. This diode will be going into a blu-ray modulatable laser module soon!

[Zoof]

nice work! looking forward to the rest!

[tocket]

Looking good as usual drlava. Your test bed is a very nice resource for this community. I'm looking forward to seeing more results and pictures.

It's just a shame these lasers are not really blue... but it will still be a nice source of cheap blue'ish LDs when they drop in price. I guess we will have to cross our fingers for laser TV for the real cheap blue.

Did you run it all the way to 130mA or are the values above 100mA extrapolated?

[drlava]

I'll be posting a video later. The 130mA run is not extrapolated, I just decided to take it a bit higher and posted that graph, which replaced the 100mA one.

[tocket]

Very nice. The curve looks so linear, I wonder if it just keeps going like that until it dies or if it flattens out first. I wouldn't want to try it though!

By the way, what value is the capacitor between the leads?

[drlava]

the cap is 47nF, it's low because this diode is going into a modulation circuit.

Someone asked for a video, sorry I don't have a DAC for my scanners yet but here's a beamshot video you may like:

Video here

[allthatwhichis]

Nice!!! I love that color! Need to find some flourecent matches.

[kaz]

nice work Drlava, you beat me to it lol, i must ask what sort of beam profile did you get compared to the ps3 diode (good i hope) what i did find with the ps3 diode is the fact that it does make a nice white light when mixed even though it does suffer with a big beam profile like a 635nm red/ i would say that looking at the curves on the nice plot you have there i would say that the chip should run at 90 to 100mw without to much of a problem for very long time usage great work keep that info comming as this could be a great source of cheapish blue
word of warning this type of power levels at low wavelenghts will cause skin cell damage due to the higher frequency of the light involved, the energy of a photon of light is directly proportional to its frequency red low energy, ultraviolet high energy/
great work, Paul

[Zoof]

Good words of warning - I suppose you can get a nice tan when working with diffused 405nm light...

[tocket]

The scar on my hand says red lasers will also cause skin cell damage.

I wouldn't worry too much about the bluray diodes though, it is too low in energy (per photon) to directly damage the DNA (but it can induce radical formation, which indirectly damages your DNA). It isn't really UV even, just on the border to it. You won't even get a tan from it. Just treat it with the same respect as any other laser.

There are lower wavelength lasers that you need to be extra careful with, especially metal ion lasers.

I'm also curious about the beam profile of that diode though. Does it change with the current?