GooeyGus
0
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 2,669
- Points
- 48
OK... SO I was wondering.... Are HeNe tubes sealed BEFORE the HR and OC mirrors, or do the mirrors actually create the seal on the tube? The reason I ask, is because I was thinking about cracking the mirrors off of mine and seeing if I could find the correct mirrors for a different wavelength, just for something fun to try. The tube was cheap, I'm not worried about losing it. ANYWAY.... I know I've seen these in green and yellow, and I also know that they still light up 'red-ish white' on the inside when they are lasing at these wavelengths. So I took a diffraction grating up to my eye to actually see what wavelengths it was actually putting out. I was a bit surprised. Yes there was red green and yellow, but I was a bit surprised to see that blue was in there as well, yet I've never seen a blue HeNe. Maybe the blue light in there isn't actually coherent laser light, but a byproduct of the process? I was able to put the diffraction grating up to my camera lens and get some shots, they're pretty neat. Look off to the right of the tube to see the actual colors that the tube is putting off.