Dumpster Laser rebuilt and modded!

[@chanheosican6636]

Very cool. Built one in photonics. Dye lasers are cool too.

[@thatoneguy99100]

Quite spectacular indeed!

[@kenwallace6493]

Les, the Renaissance man! You move from electronics to optics to mechanics with ease. This is great stuff! Puts my lab to shame. Carry on.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! :-)

[@yourpersonaldatadealer2239]

Very cool 😎 ever since I started electronics, I’ve seen circuit diagrams as art 🖼

[@andymouse]

Great looking build and nice the new PI worked out .....cheers.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks, yeah, the new Pi is pretty cool!

[@flaviospedalieri8707]

Very nice rebuild

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@christopherleubner6633]

Excellent job hacking the laser and making it work. Ever tried filling the plasma tube of a nitrogen laser with excimer gas mixture? These look to be an excellent host for conversion especially since they have a real preionizer in them. Excimer mix is generally 90% helium and 10% excimer mix. Ones with flourine would be out, but ones with chlorine would be ok, XeCl KrCl ArCl etc.🤓

[@gammaleader96]

Very nice work, it looks fantastic from the outside. Flat black with white labels and yellow warning stickers are by far the best looking combination, atleast in my opinion.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks, my thoughts exactly!

[@w0003947]

Love it. Thanks for the great vid!!!

[@DerangedTechnologist]

Just lovely (!). // Have you tried Rhodamine B in propylene glycol or glycerol? I've read that the quantum efficiency correlates with solvent viscosity (IIRC, the claim was 0.43 or so in methanol, on up to about 0.98 in PMMA plastic), so I'd expect higher output power. The viscosity comes at a cost, though: the dye solution is going to take a lot longer to move out of the way after it has been heated by the pump pulse, so you aren't likely to get high rep rates. (Liquid laundry detergent ["free and clear" type] provides another example of this; the output from the optical brightener dwindles rapidly as schlieren take over and scramble the optical path.)

[@LesLaboratory]

I have not, but I will at some point. I suppose if the results are good, it might be worth getting creative and putting a miniature magnetic stirrer in the bottom. I am also thinking about building a TEC cooled cuvette as well. I read somewhere in the literature that cooling dyes could in some cases improve efficiency (come to think about it I am sure RB was mentioned there as well)

[@DerangedTechnologist]

@@LesLaboratory Excellent. I think only a few dyes have quantum efficiency that correlates (one direction or the other) with viscosity; IIRC, though, a fair number correlate inversely with temperature, and I seem to recall, as you do, mention of RhB as one of them. (Nitrogen also lases better when it is cold, btw.) // I like your ideas for a tiny magnetic stirrer and a TEC cooler (!).

[@Brandon-rc9vp]

Les you are crushing it! Amazing to watch how fast you are advancing, way to go man!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Much appreciated!

[@simonward2953]

Amazing stuff as always Les! ;-)

[@LesLaboratory]

Cheers! :-)

[@mikeselectricstuff]

If you mix the dyes, do you get multiple lines in the same beam?

[@LesLaboratory]

It is possible, and I have done it, but the output is very weak. The problem is that the absorption and emission peaks of different dyes overlap, and they rob each other of energy. There is some reference in the literature though, that suggests that it can be done reasonably well, but they were manufacturing their own dyes, or had access to some very uncommon and expensive ones. I have actually just spent the whole evening scouring academic papers and found one in particular that looks really promising. The dyes are expensive but not extortionate, so it is now on my to-do list...

[@bussi7859]

I once used the yellow marker fluid for my UV/ dye laser. I don’t know what chemical it is but it puts a green light out. The divergence out of my laser was less then 1 mrad and at least 2mW averaged power @ 25Hz

[@LesLaboratory]

Cool! Yes, fluorescent markers and even some laundry detergents will Lase. In yellow markers, I believe the Dye is Pyranine.

[@Zenodilodon]

Wow! great results on that laser and getting it to run so well! I have an idea for a simple CW DIY dye laser to bounce off you if you're interested, maybe it's something we could team up on a little. If you're interested I can drop you an e-mail.

[@LesLaboratory]

Sure, drop me an e-mail at the usual address, I would be interested to see what your thoughts are. I have been thinking about this ever since the high power Nichia diodes hit the market...

[@cambridgemart2075]

I do hope you are able to bring this along to UKLEM next year (did you get my email with the details?).

[@pakoyones]

Awesome! ❤

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! 😄

[@dolomighty74]

love your work. I'm wondering, what happens if you mix the dyes together? you get multi line emission, or they interfere with each other someway and prevent lasing at all?

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Generally it works pretty poorly (I have done it), as the dyes tens to rob energy off of each other. That said, it is pretty cool when you get it to work! I am planning on doing some more Dye Laser videos, so I will probably do it at some point.

[@hullinstruments]

It’s been a long week and I’m super tired… So I’m probably just confused… or I missed your explanation…But does your function generator have an optical signal output? Or do you still have that small daughter board you made several months ago, with a really bright LED and everything?

[@LesLaboratory]

I just connected an LED direct to the output of the function generator (the duty cycle is really low, so no real need to current limit). The led is shoved in a little brass mount that couples in to the end of the fiber.

[@en2oh]

I'm really glad you did this teardown. I'm hoping to build a sealed nitrogen laser chamber. (but will build a few SG switches first! :) ) Quick question. Do you think that the potted module functions in a "traveling wave" pre ionization fashion? Second 'quick question': how does the output of this laser compare to what you used in the bayer filter ablation video?

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! The potted module just dumps charge, there is no travelling wave in here. The travelling wave thing was popularised in the Sci-Am article, and there is a robust discussion on why is isn't so here: jonsinger.org/jossresearch/lasers/nitrogen/circuitboardlaser.html Compared with the Fiber coupled version, the output is considerably higher :-)

[@GermanMythbuster]

👍👍

[@LesLaboratory]

Your latest comment was automatically deleted by YT! I have put a reply for you in the community section of the channel. In short, re: beam profiler, I built a prototype of my own earlier this week ;-)

[@RoosieBoomstick]

Les, I strongly doubt in your power measuring experiment, because your nitrogen laser generates pulses of ~2.5 ns time scale with a ~nanosecond risetime, and your measuring equipment has way less temporal resolution. 50 MHz oscilloscope can give you rise time of ~20 ns, so it is integrating the real signal amplitude.

[@LesLaboratory]

The measurements are correct. I am not measuring photons with a photodiode, but energy with a Pyroelectric Joulemeter, and these work much differently. The energy deposited in a Pyroelectric sensor is converted into heat, which is then measured. In this case, the pulse length does not matter, (nor is it measured) indeed you could measure the energy of pulsed lasers down to the femtoscond range. The width of the pulses produced by the sensor are quite wide (~5ms), bit for these devices it is the pulse height that is directly proportional to deposited energy. For an overview of how these devices work, and how to measure with them, see the links here: Gentec Catalog with how to perform measurements (page 13) : www.gentec-eo.com/Content/downloads/complete-catalogue/Gentec-EO_Catalogue_2014_V2.0.pdf Gentec Catalog ED-100 (Page 32) : www.tsukasa-tec.co.jp/product/measure/documents/catalog_000.pdf

[@RoosieBoomstick]

@@LesLaboratory Have to admit that you're right, I wasn't familiar with that particular joulemeter. By the way I have another question for you, when you dismembered the original unit, there was three fiber connectors in it (blue and gray). As far as I understand it is some sort of "V-PIN connector". I'm thinking on making a fiber "Time delay network" in my lab, and particularly, want to use such kind of a thing. Can you give more info on that fiber connectors and how they work (at least part numbers)?

[@LesLaboratory]

@@RoosieBoomstick It's cool, nobody knows everything! That sounds like a cool prject. Yeah, the fiber and connectors are Avago HFBR series. The transmitter is: HFBR-1521Z and the receiver is HFBR-2524Z. The Transmitter is nothing more than an LED in a fancy package, the the receiver is a photodiode and inverter arrangement internally. There is a handy data sheet for the range here: docs.rs-online.com/4791/0900766b813646c5.pdf

[@RoosieBoomstick]

@@LesLaboratory Thank you, time to give a quest to one of the students xD

[@Boogie_the_cat]

The laser has no clock, you cannot increase the clock speed of a non-existent clock. Unless it's an anti-matter quantum clock in the 11th dimension. But if you have one of those, there is no need to overclock it. In fact, overclocking an invisible 11th dimensional anti-matter clock may result in a tribble influx of damgerous proportions. Tribbles are a serious problem in the 11th dimensional state, because they excrete dark matter qu-bits in their stool. Try cleaning those up with a broom and dustpan, or putting them in a plastic bag. While we're on the subject, i heard that is the plot of the upcoming Star Trek movie. It sounds a little basic, but it'll be better than 2 out of the 3 star wars prequels. 😂

[@ph08nyx]

15 mW is not so fantastic, compared to 800-1000mW laser diodes..

[@LesLaboratory]

Last diodes aren't particularly tunable. The peak power of this laser is in the multiple 10's of kilowatts as well, far beyond the range of a bare laser diode

[@moritzalbert3314]

First :P