Simple homemade nitrogen air laser

www.laser-gadgets.com
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002678413539

...just another simple TEA laser
(Transversally Excited @ Atmospheric Pressure)

- Measurements: 270x250x60 mm
- Operating voltage: appr. 15 kV
- Channel-width: 2-3 mm
- Electrode-length: 200 mm
- Electrode-material: Aluminum (blank/polished)
- Laser-medium: ....just air
- PeakPower: unknown (owner way too lazy to calculate)

Music: Pantera - Avoid the Light

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• N2
• lasers
• selfmade
• DIY
• high
• power
• future
• weapons
• UV
• IR
• infra
• red
• CO2
• diode
• YAG
• argon
• ar+
• 337.1
• TE
• dye
• stickstoff
• farbstoff

[DerangedTechnologist]

@AnselmoFanZero

I think that if you pump the dye with an ultrashort (femtosecond) pulse, you might actually be able to do that -- even in a small cuvette, the dye will lase for some picoseconds (possibly dozens or hundreds) after it reaches threshold. Not sure it has practical uses, but it's a curious notion.

[AnselmoFanZero]

@DerangedTechnologist

Dont know either to be honest.

[DerangedTechnologist]

@AnselmoFanZero --

"Never heard of an excimer laser holding a q-switch..."

You know, I don't think I have, either. This is not to say that it's entirely impossible, but my guess is that the usual excimers have lifetimes in the low nsec range, which makes Q-switching difficult. Also usually pointless, though I have heard of a few people Q-switching dye lasers (for example, Janos Hebling, "Q-switched picosecond dye laser pumped by an excimer laser" Appl. Opt. 28 (1989), pp417-419).

[AnselmoFanZero]

@DerangedTechnologist

Reducing pulse duration with a dye cell or whatever....might even increase pulse duration.

[DerangedTechnologist]

I think @douro20 is wrong. First of all, the upper laser level lifetime of nitrogen is only 40 nsec, and it is very difficult to Q-switch. Second, any half-decent nitrogen laser produces much more than just tens of kW.

Also, I'm not at all sure what he means by "directly excited". The nitrogen in your laser is directly excited by the discharge, and an excimer laser does exactly the same thing.

[AnselmoFanZero]

@DerangedTechnologist

Never heard of an excimer laser holding a q-switch...

[AnselmoFanZero]

@douro20

An answer to a question never asked :)

Thats why the title says: SIMPLE....

[douro20]

A directly excited nitrogen laser can be made using an excimer laser apparatus. It can produce even more powerful pulses than this, and in the tens of kilowatts with a Q-switch.

[AnselmoFanZero]

@noahwic1

Ok....maybe it doesnt look that simple, but try it out and you will figure out pretty quick that a clean set up is easier than a lose set up with alu foil and some brass tubing laying flat on your desk ;-)

[noahwic1]

O yes that is VERY simple if you are a frikin rocket scientist