homemade dye laser

A homemade dye laser uses dye extracted from inside a yellow fluorescent marker. The dye laser is pumped with a homemade TEA laser operating with ordinary air as the lasant. The entire setup is powered with a homemade electrostatic Wimshurst Machine.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• homemade
• dye
• nitrogen
• TEA
• laser
• wimshurst

[DarkTemp0]

Is it on "superradiant" operation or normal ?

I would reccomend a voltage multiplier as power supply and a higher repetition rate of about 50Hz, it will appear almost like a CW laser

[magx1]

Power supply is electrostatic. Dielectric will not survive high repetition rate. Dye laser is superradiant. Nitrogen laser (in foreground) produces invisible UV beam. UV beam is focused to a line on surface of dye cuvette. Green dye laser beam emirges from both ends of this 'line'.

[phazonxl]

sounds like a leyden jar discharging

[magx1]

The power source is a motorized Wimshurst Machine. Two homemade capacitors share one common plate. A spark gap connects one cap to the common plate, and the other cap discharges though the channel between the two. The capacitors are for the nitrogen laser, which pumps the dye laser. The dielectric is a sheet of 'write on' overhead projector transparency.

[magx1]

...I have used spark gap spacings as small as 3mm, and as large as 15mm. A spark probably requires 1000v per millimeter of spacing, and this is the only way I have to estimate the voltages that are used. Go to my site and email me. There are simple details I can share with you, that make a really big difference with everything. But they are too numerous to mention here. Thanks again.

[magx1]

Thanks, but much of the credit goes to Jon Singer and Milan Karakas who have both provided me with priceless help and support. Fluorescein works, but it is much harder to lase. Sometimes mixing fluorescein with other dyes will help. A round plano convex lens will work if placed close enought to the nitrogen laser. Cylindrical lenses can be found at surplus shed. See following post...

[Lokivoid]

Go find your self a oudins coil or old "violet wand", It will produce allmost a constant stream there great for TEA's and tube testing gas lasers.

[g47soloc45]

is that suppose to give you cancer or something.

[l33tgam3r]

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[DrMario2007baka]

True, Fluorescein is much harder to pump, but the more exotic ones would work better (like R+6G dye), although, if you want it to glow the whole times, it could be tricker, though (unless you can afford the 335 Nanometer UV LED for easier ignition and, yeah - the cascade multiplier, if you don't want to, it's up to you, be creative!)