Wavelength tunable SP 168 (pics!)

[GooeyGus]

Well, I got a little bored today so I pulled out the 168 and started tinkering. While at PaCoLEM, Laserman informed me that BOTH of my broken lasers (a 164 and a 165) had the wavelength tuning prism assemblies. He also told me that I could probably take the tuning prism out of my 164 and make it work on my 168.

So, I decided to go for it! It really wasn't too bad at all. After about 15 minutes I had the prism in place on the 168. It was a tiny bit harder to align than a normal optic, but I still had it lasing again in under 2 minutes.

Anyway, here are the pictures!!! My camera kinda makes anything that is 500nm and lower look the same, haha... but the pics are still neat.


514.5nm!!




I'm not sure what this next wavelength is.... I know it's right around 500nm. The camera makes it look blue, but it's VERY much green in person. It is a very weak line, and the fact that I was only pushing about 15A tube current didn't help much. I thought using a very low exposure time would help bring the color out... but it didn't.



This next one is 488nm. It's much more teal in person. The camera makes it look almost the same as 475nm (which is coming up)



This next one is ~475nm. It is a very nice bright blue, basically looks exactly like the picture.



And lastly, 457nm. A nice deep blue. I turned the current up a bit to bring the line out a bit more.



And finally, after a quick optics swap, back to multiline





There are a few more lines, but they are so close together and are fairly weak so it makes it a bit hard to single them out. I was just so happy to have a tunable argon! It was really fun to watch the colors change with the twist of a knob.

Thanks for lookin! Let me know what you think

[Laserman532]

GREAT JOB GOOEY!- I bet you cant wait until you can run at least 35 amps, that would be with your laser about 2.3 watts of 514 and 2.6 or so of 488 and a fist full of violet! Excellent work!

[GooeyGus]

Oops.... I almost forgot... picture of the prism assembly!

[daedal]

Now that is impressive!

Nice and thanx for sharing... but now it looks like I have another gadget on my to-buy list

--DDL

[300EVIL]

Very nice pics! Where's the PS? Obviously you are stuck in the utility room due to cord length and liquid requirements. Thanks for sharing!