Simple Homemade Tea Laser

[toadsEATbugs]

Mine doesn't work. I followed your setup almost exactly, except that I'm using a 2n3773 flyback driver instead of a NST. The spark gap fires about 300 times per second at 1mm, and the rails won't arc unless they are less than 0.5mm apart. It just doesn't work. Can anyone explain this?

The rails might be annodized but that wouldn't explain the spark gap.

[Zone51]

@toadsEATbugs I tried with annodized aluminium, it didn't worked until i remove the oxyde layer. I'm using HV from ignition coil, rectified using a vaccum tube. My laser didn't work with no rectified current. You can see the setup on my channel.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Amusing choice of music.

[Mugrs]

The odd shaped glass was a bit odd.

[antienjigglement]

If you must have a cavity of sorts, a mirror can be placed at the spark gap end to increase the power. A sub-atmospheric N2 laser usually has a wndow and a total reflector and that's it. This is quite nice nonetheless.

[nylesteiner]

@antienjigglement

I was able to put a mirror on that end

and align the reflection spot with the

original spot but I did not have a good

way of evaluating the difference. The

difference in brightness did not not

seem to be very significant.

[antienjigglement]

@nylesteiner I understand that situation; it probably has to be measured with an instrument. I sure don't know how to do it otherwise as the laser pulse is so short and the power may already be so high as to saturate the target's ability to make a brighter spot. I hope you will post more experiments with this kind of laser.

[OLTCITKA]

Another amazing creation! (excuse me for writing other stuff about asking help,i did not notice the link in the description...).

[ifyadontplaypburlost]

cool

[Naurtopokemonmaster1]

its not like a laser pointer its what there gonna use in wars

[voanirges]

Hm it's interesting but I really don't understand how this works, I mean the principle.I am engineer and I don't see the resonator here , or I just missed to see it on this video ,please explain ????

[voanirges]

so I need optical reflecting system, and natural air, with natural almost 80% nitrogen, and to make it excited via electric flashing, so it will resonate????Any boudaries, about electric input frequency, or distance between reflecyors, or angle, ok I will try this.Thanks

[frothychimp]

you don't need any kind of reflecting system. it is superradiant, one pass is all that is needed for it to lase. The HR mirror simply reflects the energy heading out the back of the laser. It requires alignment and will improve output.

[frothychimp]

There is no real practical way to make a traditional resonator for this laser due primarily to the extinction speed. Because of the superradiance a huge amount of the N2 is lofted into the upper lasing level when the spark gap discharges so it does no good to build a resonator particularly because the relaxation is on the order of milliseconds.

[voanirges]

so only current pass in N2 will lase, hm I am surprised with that fact!What direction will be the laser beam , according to spark , sorry if I bother but I really want to create one laser like this one, but I didn't figure out from this video it's construstion, and I have never heard about such behaving of N2, I heard for He/Ne,CO2 , Ge laser but this is new to me

[VideyoJunkei]

any electric arc makes UV light....the long strip 'lines it up'

[nylesteiner]

Yet that is right, in fact, I plan to soon put up a page showing how to make a simple uv light with a corona arc but, it is very evident that the lining up in the case of the tea laser also causes laser action.

Very specific operating requirements show that there is more going on than just a simple case of constricted uv light. Many settings produce a uv light strip without a beam.

Put tea laser on google to find out more.

[AZURA888]

why the laser is pulsed and not continuous?, maybe the heat i guess.

[AnselmoFanZero]

Because you have to charge and discharge to capacitor-plates. Takes time. Plus: The N2 molecules have to relax after they emitted laser-light...

[BigPark33]

thats not umm "terror" thats classical

[Rruuni]

the music at the end sounds like a terror movie ::P

[hboy007]

what's a "terror movie"?

[JOEBO19x]

i think he means like a scary movie

[rsmeansrunescape]

how do you make it

[magx1]

I like this video. You did a good job with the titles and music. The music really combines well with the visual part. It is very interesting. Have you tried lasing any dyes yet?

[mrkiky]

That's pretty cool! anyone know about the power output and wavelength?

[hboy007]

wavelength 337.1nm

power? hahahaa. Neglegible much less than 1mW

[mrkiky]

oh well, at least it flouresces shit up :)

[ChrisKarr]

Hey, buddy, the whole nm thing means nanometers. The wavelength has nothing to do with the power, but, instead, the light spectrum. Learn your units.

[Iceymice]

does it burn stuff?

[ShottyChampion]

shutup you prick

[sciexp]

Yes, I've tried to drive a multiplier with a disposable camera unit. It works, but the result doesn't seems like for example when you drive from the wall. Maybe, because of the frequence.

[sciexp]

Ohh, great, again!!!!!!!

Have you proved to power the laser with a piezoelectric igniter. Probably the current is very very low, much lower than 10 mA. I have thought of that now. Anyone has proved that?

Do you think that this is possible?

[rachm06]

I think it isn't possible because the current should be continue(or pulsed but with relatively high frequency), and if I understood, the piezoelectric igniter provides only one pulse per second or similar.

It is simplest to build a voltage multiplier from a disposable camera unit.

[cumesoftware]

Very interesting. Does it produce coherent light? I don't see any mirrors, since those are a requirement to produce such light.

[rachm06]

Any laser radiation is coherent. In this case this is called "superradiant laser": it has a so high gain that don't need any optical resonator. However if you put a simple mirror at one end, will increase the output power by more than 100%.

[cumesoftware]

I though it would require mirrors in order the light emissions to be coherent with each other. Your UV radiation must be very concentrated when a discharge occurs in the tube, so it won't require mirrors to concentrate light and cause photon emissions to be syncronized. Is that it?

[cumesoftware]

Well, it wouldn't be a laser if it would produce coherent light. But then again, I didn't wanted to ask it it was a true laser or just one nonochromatic light generator focused by optics. It would seem too ofensive to ask that.

[ChrisKarr]

The light is produced by the ionization of nitrogen. The spark you see is the result of the discharge through air. The laser beam this emits is in the ultraviolet spectrum and isn't visible to the unaided eye. You could see the light because of the materials he ran it through. The back piece of paper was basically colored all over with highlighter. Also, the water contained highlighter ink. The highlighter ink fluoresces in the presence of UV light. This is a "real" laser, as it has no diode.

[cumesoftware]

Indeed. But when you say: "This is a "real" laser, as it has no diode.", why would you consider LED LASERs other than real?

[ChrisKarr]

I think that he was saying that a "real" laser, in his eyes, comes from a gas putting off radiation due to a pulsing electric charge. I, myself, wouldn't consider diode lasers any less of lasers, even if they are wimpy (generally - yes, I know about DragonLasers, so please stop harassing people about them!).

[pingoart]

i have been waiting for your next site update quite eagerly, and i'll certainly be interested in this laser. You said that it was easy to make, but how easy? Household material?

[rachm06]

the most "difficult" material to obtain is the power supply. It should supply at least 3 kv.

[pingoart]

but with how much current?

I can't wait for the tutorial...

[rachm06]

low current, for example 10 mA. If you use a NST as power supply, at least 1 Mohm resistor in series is required to limit the current. The current is not very important, but if it is too high, will damage the dielectric and other parts.