Greenie taken apart, great look inside.

[FreeBee]

Hi there,

Since I got my first green laser I was wondering about how it works.
I've read that red lasers have less lenses, thus making them easier in working. Now I was very curious about how a green laser works, so I just did some research. Maybe some of you already have seen this, but it can't hurt to post anyway.

This guy dissects his green laser pointer, showing all bits inside. There's also a little info about the simple red laser pointer.

Clicky!

Note: This is not my work, I do not take credit for it.

*update*

I've taken my old DX True 30mw apart yesterday.
I was quite surpriced I did not found anything that looks like a crystal, except for the KTP crystal.

Look at this picture, from the website I mentioned above.

Now check my components.

Almost a total different setup. And I miss a Nd:YVO4 crystal and an IR filter.
I once put too much current on my laser, and there was said that or the diode was fried, or the crystal broke. Could it be that?

 

[Ace82]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

I like the camera w/ monitor idea. I wonder how different the hand - eye coordination would be.... :-?

 

[ZANE]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

Nice review of your work- thanks for the read!

 

[CL_]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

ya, i saw that, pretty crazy how he put his laser on the line...

 

[trueHOUSE]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

is this your page ??

 

[FreeBee]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

is this your page ??

Nice review of your work- thanks for the read!

No, I wish I could do that kind of stuff.
Read my last sentence

Anyway, yeah it is cool how he completely takes that laser apart, then he just aligns all the parts back together, and he gets a working laser.

This is also very cool.

The diode actually pumps out IR light at 808 nm. I love the purple glow.

"A high power IR laser diode at 808 nm pumps a tiny block of Nd:YVO4 generating light at 1,064 nm which feeds a KTP intracavity frequency doubler crystal to produce the green beam at 532 nm."

I never would have thought that it would be so hard to get green light.

 

[laserfreak3d]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

there are green and blue laser diodes sadly there kind of exotic and expensive but the do excist

 

[FreeBee]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

I just started dissecting my old broken Dealextreme True 30mw, and I concluded that this one has NO IR-filter.

 

[trueHOUSE]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

what do u see throught camera with ir filter?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

I wonder if that purple glow is actually the infrared. If it is, then the fact that you can see it with such visibility through the digital camera's IR cut filter shows it is an extremely intense source of IR.

 

[Switch]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

I wonder if that purple glow is actually the infrared.  If it is, then the fact that you can see it with such visibility through the digital camera's IR cut filter shows it is an extremely intense source of IR.

Yea, it is IR.Maybe his camera doesn't have an IR filter, but anyway, they usually have powerful pump diodes.

 

[IgorT]

Almost a total different setup. And I miss a Nd:YVO4 crystal and an IR filter.

Why do you miss the crystals? I can see them in your picture. They are glued together, to form one piece.
The one in Sam's is a CNI pointer, cheaper pointers have both the crystals in one piece.



Otherwise, there are MANY lenses in your pointer.. Was there any lense between the pump diode and the crystal assembly?


The dead part is either your diode or the "driver" PCB.. You could probably bring it back to life with a new diode... What power was this pointer supposed to be?

 

[FreeBee]

I'm still new to lasers. I didn't know the crystals are glued together as one piece. Makes sense actually, not all lasers are the same.

Laser was build in the order I placed them in the picture.

 

[IgorT]

I'm still new to lasers. I didn't know the crystals are glued together as one piece. Makes sense actually, not all lasers are the same.

I read, that in some expensive lasers, the two crystals are kept separate, so that the first one can be heated up, while the second one is cooled down, for better efficiency..


The CNI pointers are VERY well built.. And they use C-mount pump diodes, which can be bought in even higher powers and due to the quality construction, wouldn't be that hard to replace..

I'm getting a 150mW CNI pointer (same as Nova Lasers X-150), and it is good to know, that i can fix it or even upgrade it if necessary...

With the cheaper lasers (NewWish...), this is close to impossible, without tons of experience and even more patience...

 

[pwnstar]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

"A high power IR laser diode at 808 nm pumps a tiny block of Nd:YVO4 generating light at 1,064 nm which feeds a KTP intracavity frequency doubler crystal to produce the green beam at 532 nm."


if the diode is 808nm can you skip the block of Nd:YVO4, and pump the ir light right into the KTP intracavity frequency doubler crystal and get 404nm??
or does it not work like that..

 

[IgorT]

Re: Greenie taken apart, great look inside

if the diode is 808nm can you skip the block of Nd:YVO4, and pump the ir light right into the KTP intracavity frequency doubler crystal and get 404nm??
or does it not work like that..

Unfortunatelly no. These crystals have a VERY narrow effective wavelength range..

So narrow in fact, that if the wavelength changes only a little bit from heat, you can loose all your brightness.


404 would be great for a powerfull and cheap "Blue Ray".. But you'd need completelly different crystals for that. And I don't think there are any for this specific wavelength at all. Not 100% sure....