The TM-29 which I am selling is visible in the picture below, it is the darker eggshell colored single unit on the right, the one on the left is already sold at above this asking price. – Thanks for looking.

EG&G TM-29 Pair

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The Maxwell energy storage capacitor is rated at 170uF at 10kV and is labeled as Non-PCB as are all of my energy storage capacitors.  If you have an opportunity to buy oil filled capacitors, always make sure they are of the non-PCB variety in case of eventual capacitor shell failure.  This energy storage capacitor was obtained from a friend who had several of them and was getting rid of a couple of them. The capacitors outer casing is made from approximately 1/4″ steel and it has a large isolated discharge terminal on the top. The capacitor itself is quite heavy at around 125-150 pounds.

The capacitor charging supply for this energy storage capacitor was charged off a 15kV NST rectified through a full wave bridge made of 120 1n4006 1000 volt general purpose diodes contained in PVC tubes with no mineral oil. The original intent was to fill the PVC tubes with mineral oil but I did not get to that point.  Keeping them contained in the tubes did provide isolation and some easy to connect wing nut terminals on either end of the tube.

The system was charged and discharged through the activation of pneumatic valves through semi-rigid pneumatic tubing powered off of a cylinder of nitrogen. The charge switch was a single long throw pneumatic cylinder which pushed up and closed the charging circuit.  The discharge switch was a larger pneumatic cylinder which pushed a copper plate up against two terminals to close the circuit to the load on the capacitor.The charging circuit was disconnected from the capacitor before the capacitor was discharged in order to protect the NST and the HV rectifier tubes.

Misfire and subsequent discharge was done manually with a 10 foot long PVC pipe with a brass bar mounted to the end, this resulted in some extremely loud discharges when the system did not discharge as expected.

On successful discharges the system was drained down by shorting the manual discharge rod across the capacitor terminal and the capacitor case. The shunt was held in place and the terminal swept with a isolated high voltage probe before the capacitor was shorted indefinitely with a clamp on strap to allow new experiments to be setup.

All persons involved with the experiments were aware of the dangers and danger zones of the setup and were well protected behind a solid metal object from any possibly debris and we had good communications as well.

I do not recommend that anyone try these experiments. Your first mistake may likely be your last mistake when dealing with these voltages and energies. This is not an instructional document as intended only to share my own experience and approach.These type of experiments are extremely dangerous and carry great risk to life, limb and property and require carefully thought our procedures, systems and execution.

The high voltage discharge video can be viewed below, please let me know your thoughts or questions by commenting at the bottom of this post.

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Good News! I’ve moved the site successfully to it’s new server, here at Jon’s Hobby Lasers.  The big problem with multiple sites under one domain is that it’s difficult to track statistics and other things. I always like to see if my posts are interesting to folks and make sure I am posting stuff that is worth reading.

I’ve been working here and there on the copper vapor laser, I’ve received some neon transformers to use for the capacitor charging supply, I’ve integrated the process controller with a thermocouple and heating element and have been experimenting with that a bit. I don’t like the positioning of the heating element in the tube furnace I’ve built so I might look at some other options as well, but nothing worth talking about at the moment.  I’ve cut the quartz tubing for the bore and started to manufacture the tube ends out of copper pipe fittings.  Right now I’m looking for a good seal between the copper pipe and the quartz tube. One idea is to use a stack of Viton o-rings between the copper tubing’s inner diameter, but I’m also checking to see what other options I have.

Once I finalize these parts the next big step is to put together the charging supply, capacitor and interrupter. I will provide details and photos as things move along, so please check back occasionally.

As always, I welcome input and conversation on this project so please feel free to comment below.

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I received the supplies to build the tube furnace for the CVL laser, I’m hoping that this furnace will be suitable for the CuBr and CuCl version of the laser, as well as the elemental copper version of the laser.  Time will tell, but for right now I am focusing the CuCl/CuBr version. I still haven’t decided on the particular source which is why I say CuCl/CuBr at this time. I’m sure as I get closer to a working laser I will decide on the type.

Right now I have been working on the tube furnace.  The furnace consists of a piece of 6 inch black thick steel stovepipe which I purchased at the local (NOT ACE, Mr. Argon Ion) hardware store.  This piece seems suitable for my needs, it is a thick wall, it’s sturdy.  One of the unfortunate side effects is that it suffers quite a bit of expansion/contraction of the material under heat.  I’ve been using my oven to dry out each layer of refractory ceramic mortar I am using to build up the unit and separations are forming at some of the seams.  When they do I just fill with more mortar and they eventually go away.  It is something to be aware of if you use this method.

As I mentioned in a previous post I ordered a bunch of the refractory ceramic supplies from Ellis Knife Works, they seem like a nice couple and were in contact with me a decent amount regarding the availability of supplies and status of my order.  In short time I received the refractory components which consisted of the Inswool ceramic fiber mat, the Insboard ceramic fiber hardboard, and the AP Green #36 refractory ceramic mortar, and the ITC-100 refractory ceramic mortar.

I cut the stovepipe in half using a skill saw with a metal blade, this has to be the noisiest thing I’ve ever heard, and it’s great that I own a house now. Trying to do that cut in an apartment would have resulted in the cops at my door and glares from neighbors who idea of a project is gluing plastic flowers to a painted board.

I used my electric scroll saw to cut out the shapes in the ceramic board (Insboard) to fit the ends of the stovepipe.  It’s important to avoid breathing the dust from ceramic fiber materials as they are SUSPECTED carcinogens.  I use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to suck up all the nasty junk as I’m cutting.  These materials, in particular, contain crystallized silica (quartz) and in a fine powder they are suspected to have the same carcinogenic affects as asbestos.  Always be safe when working with such materials, you can never get some parts of your body back.

Here are some photos of the tube furnace in progress and my messy workbench.  While I have proceeded further than this I haven’t taken pictures.  I will be taking pictures of the process I used to build the top half of the tube furnace, so you can get an idea of the sequence.

Update: I’ve added a photo of my current progress, in the top of the photo you see the furnace half with the Inswool installed and coated in the AP Green #36 ceramic mortar, and in the bottom half you see the steel shell being prepped for it’s layer of Inswool mat/blanket.

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I’ve ordered some quartz tubing in two different sizes: 10mm ID / 14mm OD and 20mm ID / 24mm OD.  I also ordered some quartz rod to use as cylindrical focusing lenses: 2mm and 4mm diameter. The rod is for use as optics and other projects.  All of their quartz products like this come as a minimum of 4 foot lengths. Overall the order was around 78 dollars + shipping. I ordered this quartz from QSI / Quartz Scientific Inc.

UPDATE: I received the quartz tube and rods, the tubes are in excellent condition and survived shipping.  One of the rods had an end piece break off in transit, this is OK as I was planning on cutting it to much smaller pieces, it just saved me the trouble a little!   QSI sent the stuff fairly quickly, it took less than a week to get here.

I received two 12kV / 30ma transformers I had purchased through eBay on Saturday.  My understanding is that you need at least 200V/cm for copper vapor lasers.  With a 12kV NST connected through a full wave bridge, the voltage would be around 16,920 VDC and at 200V/cm I would get around 84.6CM which is equivilant to around 33.3 inches. It makes sense to limit the bore length to 32 or even 30  inches between electrodes at this voltage.

Additionally I ordered a K type thermocouple off eBay for $30(for 2, including shipping, connectors and wire) . They’re rated up to 1800 degrees F.  I also ordered a Watlow 96 process controller, also from eBay for $30 including shipping, that will help maintain a stable temperature inside the oven.  Sometimes you can find process controls for kiln use, which I think would be a better option as they allow a slow preheat and a few other things more akin to a kiln. Since the CVL laser is basically a laser which needs to be run with the bore inside of a kiln I think it would reduce a lot of pre-heat stresses from the system.

The process controller allows you to set a target temperature you are trying to reach, and senses the current temperature in the oven using the thermocouple.  If the temperature is below that set-point it will put out a low voltage high logic signal on one of it’s pins.  This logic signal can be interfaced to a solid state relay (SSR) which powers the thermal tape, or Nichrome heating element to warm the bore inside the oven. Once it reaches the proper temeperature it will try to maintain a set temperature within limits you set.  More aggressive temperature control can lead to many cycles of the heating element as the process controller turns it off and on many more times to maintain an exact temperature.

UPDATE: The Watlow 96 process controller arrived. This thing is great and extremely flexible. I spent some time messing with the programming guide last night. It’s quite amazing what this thing is capable.  It supports a bursting mode which is supposed to help the heater elements or other devices attached survive a little longer than if it were to do long on, and long off periods.  Basically the element will always be heated as the controller runs a preset duty cycle.

It also supports a soft start, it will use a low duty cycle until the thermocouple reports a preset temperature level and then it will crank up the power.  This keeps the system from inducing any thermal shock into the system (if you set it up right) It’s going to take a few more hours of fiddling around to make sure everything is the way it should be. With the added serial output, I should be able to log the data from the Process Controller if I want to. It’s amazing the technology you can get for $30.

My next steps are to continuing ordering components as I can. I have been shopping for some refractory ceramic ‘fluff’ or sheets and have found a few different options. I was hoping to find a material that I could use for both a low temperature halide and a high temperature CVL, but most of the ceramic fluffs and refractory cements aren’t rated for much over 2400F it seems.  I may need something more special/expensive when I go to build a non-halide type laser.

I’ve also been doing some shopping for refractory ceramic bores as I would like to build a CVL laser using actual copper, rather than a copper solution.  I have no idea what the price will be, but I have some feelers out to a couple of manufacturers who do single quantity sales of items they have in stock.  I’m hoping they may have some broken stock, or some odd sized stock that they might be willing to sell to a hobbyist at a reasonable price.

UPDATE: I received contact back from a company regarding refractory ceramic bores for building a pure Copper Vapor Laser. I spoke to Dick at www.earthwaterfire.com / Anderman Ceramics and he said that they have sold components for commercial Copper Vapor Lasers projects in the past and the material which was sold was a dense alumina product for temps just above 1600C.  The closest he could get to my 25mm ID request (-/+ 4% tolerance) was a a 25mm ID with a 32mm OD, basically a 3.5mm wall thickness.   For a 36 inch piece the price was US$165 and for 48″ US$225.  This is not nearly as expensive as I thought it could have been and I will be ordering a 3 foot section soon.  They also sell other ceramics and types which may be of interest, some I believe are rated over 5000F so if you need something that can take the heat it may be worth looking there.

I’ll post more updates as things move along and some photos as the components begin to show up.

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I picked up a new 60lb tank of nitrogen as my last tank was emptied some time ago. I had bought the bottle originally quite a while back so I only had to pay $33 exchange for the fill.  Quite a deal considering how slow I go through nitrogen.  The nitrogen is fed into the lasing channel with just a a piece of hose placed over the center of the bore.  The nitrogen will flow down and around the electrodes. Perhaps it’s not a very elegant solution. A acrylic plate with a hole and hose fitting on it that sits over everything might perform a little better, but I don’t think it makes a big difference for this level of project.

The electrodes are only about 6 inches long and are made from aluminum bar stock. I used a file to shape a rounded profile onto their edges and then 800-1000 grit sandpaper to smooth and metal polish for a final polish. It only took a few minutes to make the electrodes, they’re aren’t that great, but apparently are suitable. A lot of this is probably not something you woudl use on a final or project laser, but if you just want to see how fast you can make a nitrogen laser from junk around the house, it’s fine.

The power supply for the laser is a ~18kV solid state monitor flyback I have had for years. The monitor I pulled it from had no standard flyback transformer and used only this box for the HV supply.  The box takes 24 volts from the power pins and puts out high voltage. It’s fairly low current but has worked well for experiments such as this laser and other low current high voltage applications. If I could find more of these it would be great, much more convenient than the traditional high voltage supplies one has to make and much smaller than a neon sign transformer.

This whole laser is very low profile, so the output beam was just skimming the surface of the workbench. I tried to get a variety of shots of the laser operating for a good overview. The green fluorescence is from the dye of a highlighter type marker mixed with water. The orange fluorescent fluid is R6G I saved back when I scrapped an argon pumped dye laser assembly.

Additionally here are a few still shots so you can see the layout.

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EG&G TM-29 Pair

The two modules shown below are TM-29 Thyratron drivers by EG&G one is newer revision than the other from inside and outside appearances as well as variations on the serial number. I’m not sure what these these thyratron drivers originally cost, but judging from the insides and the fact they’re from EG&G I’m going guess they weren’t cheap.  I’m planning on using one of these with the TEA N2 a friend gave laser instead of the original triggering circuit as these have a variable speed control and will integrate nicely into the setup.

The TM-29 has variable pulse rate up to 2kHz as well as a manual fire button.  Additionally they can be linked together with a co-ax cable to work in tandem running two thyratrons or providing a sync output to another piece of equipment that requires knowing when the thyratron was fired. That’s pretty cool and adds some flexibility to what type of laser projects they can be used for in the future.  The TM-29 is spec’ed for 3″ and larger thyratrons, so I may have to find a large thyratron for some capacitor discharge experiments, or do some research and study to see if these will run smaller ones without causing any damage.

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TEA N2 Laser on Workbench

I took about 10 minutes of video and put all the arc-over segments right next to each other so you can see them. The video is about 10 seconds long.  You can watch the video embedded below.

Down below you can also see a couple of stills I pulled out of the video.  Maybe better luck next time, I need to order a roll of Kapton tape to better rebuild these pre-ionizer electrodes. The PI electrodes also double as PI capacitors, using Kapton tape to build up layers between the PCB of the PI electrode and the primary electrode.

TEA N2 Laser Arcing Over

N2 Misfire - End of Bore

The big block of acrylic below is because I don’t trust old electrolytic capacitors and I wanted to have a shield in case it decided to destroy itself. While the blocks a bit overkill, it is what was handy.

TEA N2 Laser on Workbench 2

I’ve updated the schematic from the original version, it’s still missing the trigger board for now though.  The changed I made were to move the inductor on the cathode to the right position and to add a ground to the grid/ground plane of the capacitor. The setup is ‘grounded grid’ thyratron, I bet it would help if I actually showed the grid ground

TEA N2 Schematic 0.1

Below is a video of the laser firing off in consecutive mis-fires, you can see that’s it’s misfiring as an arc and not lasing.  I’m one step closer however, now I just have to figure out how to make the pre-ionizers work properly.  Once I get this laser working properly I will probably switch to a rectified neon sign transformer for the power supply and use one of my EG&G TM-29 thyratron drivers.  I should be able to integrate it okay with some modifications to the existing drive circuit.

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I took some photos of the laser tube and the optical rail in order to share the design and setup with other folks who might find it interesting viewing.

Here is the tube in its entirety mounted to the steel bars for optical stability. I am guessing that the steel bars are actually the alloy Invar or another similar low thermal expansion material that will keep optical drift to a minimum throughout thermal variances.

Meditec Argon Laser Tube

Meditec Argon Laser Tube 2

In these photos you can see a close up view of the anode and cathode end of the argon laser tube with the OC and HR optics in their mounts. The optics mounts are fairly technical in design with capture plates for the actual optics themselves, fine thread adjustment screws for aligning the optics, and tension springs that ensure the optics plate is always pressed firmly against the adjustment screws.  The yellow colored pieces just behind the optics mounts are made of a rubber-like material and provide a dust seal between the Brewster stem and the optics carriage.

Meditec Argon Laser Tube Anode End and OC

On the cathode end of this argon laser it’s pretty much the same setup as the anode, but you have the addition of two small 120 volt fans used to keep the endbell cool. The bore of the laser is water cooled, however the cathode end of the laser is not and requires the fans.

Meditec Argon Laser Tube Cathode End and HR Optic

Below is another photo of the laser tube end bell showing isolated and insulated connections for the filament itself and also showing the modular construction of this laser. Both the anode and cathode end Brewster stems are removable as is the gas fill line, which you can see on the left side of the bell in the above picture. There are additional clamps here and there along the laser which would allow you completely disassemble it into it’s component pieces if you were to re-manufacture it. I guess back when this was built it was still cheaper to re-manufacture a laser tube than to just buy a new one.

Meditec Argon Laser Cathode End Closeup

Also on the end bell is the manufacturers sticker which shows the number 01-931614390 for ‘manufactured’ as well as the model number. It’s odd that the model is MLR and then there’s the red /W added to the end of it, I’m not sure what that means, if anyone has any ideas please post a comment to let me know. I’d love to find out as much information on this laser as I can but web searches have not come up with a lot of results.

Meditec Argon Laser Manufacture Info and Model Number

I took a few more shots of the optics mounts to provide more detail. Below is a back angle shot looking at the tube side of the optics. You can see the Brewster stem of the anode end coming from the right of the photo, the rubber-like dust seal between the Brewster stem and the optics mount, and the glass cylinder which is mounted to the optics mount to accept the seal.

Meditec Argon Laser Optics Mount and Brester Stem Cover

Here is a better shot of the dust seal over the stem and the optics mount. The rubber is quite a few years old but still quite flexible despite being discolored. It has not dried out nor cracked or anything of that sort that would lead me to believe it’s anywhere near end of life. The material may actually be silicone based or something along those lines.

Meditec Argon Laser Brewster Stem and Cover

I pulled back the seal to provide a better view of the Brewster stem, show the angle of the Brewster window and give a better idea overall of how close the stem is to the actual optics. I then immediately replaced the seal as I really don’t want to tear this whole thing apart to clean the windows if I don’t have to.

Meditec Argon Laser Brewster Stem and Cover

In this last picture you can see the wiring block for the umbilical cable which delivers power for the fans, various sensor connections, power for the electromagnet around the bore and other tertiary equipment which was connect to and around the bore.  It look a bit confusing at first but is pretty straight forward once you start to track the wiring

Meditec Argon Laser Umbilical Wiring Junction

I hope you enjoyed the photos, please use the comments section below if you have any comments, information or additional questions/requests for photos.

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Here’s the basic process of how this works, subject to modification.  Feel free to comment!

1. The transformer’s 1500V output is current limited by the resistor and half-wave rectified by the chain of 5 diodes.

2. The 1n4007 diodes are a very generic type rated at 1amp at 1,000 Volts. 5 In series provides a rating of 5kV. Since this is a half-wave capacitor input load the  circuit should output a peak of 1500*1.41 (2115 Volts DC) and an average voltage of 1500*0.90 (1350 Volts DC) the diodes have a large safety margin.

3. The capacitors are charged from this current limited and rectified power source.

4. At first the voltage is pulled down by the current demands of charging the capacitors.

5. As the capacitors charge, their current demand drops, allowing the voltage in the circuit rise.

6. As the voltage on the circuit reaches the breakdown voltage of the argon gas in the laser tube, the capacitors are discharged down the length of the bore, creating a conductive plasma which the low voltage/high current source from the power supply will flow through.

7. Once the laser is started, the starter circuit is disabled.

8. The discharge will be sustained until power from the power supply is removed.

Special notes on the photos:

Starter board: The 9 pin connector on the start board actually only uses the 2 outermost pins for the HV start energy.   The connector that plugs in there and leads to the blocking diodes has 2 white/blue wires.

Blocking Diodes: The white and blue wires come from the start module.  The heat sinks have black plastic mounting points on the top of them. I was looking at this in low light and was a bit confused until I actually noticed the rivets on either side of the mounting point and realized.. ah!

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Additionally the page has been modified to support Search Engine Optimization using some plugins for the content management system so hopefully it will show up better in search and then guide people to the different websites in the ring through news and updates.

The site will provide additional benefit in allowing LOH WebRing members to post updates and links to their sites as they add new information. That information will be search optimized, and the links in their posts will direct people directly to their website.

The page is currently under development, but when it is ready for members to join and post information, I will post that on the site. If you know anyone who should be on the WebRing but currently is not or if you would like to join yourself, please send them to this link http://X.webring.com/wrman?ring=nightlase;addsite;invite= which will get them started with setting up their account and/or membership on the WebRing.

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While not a big Star Wars fan, and not one to run around swinging a broomstick on video, it is something that would be pretty neat to see in person.  I feel that they’re so absorbed in their own world that they fail to see the reality and possibility of future developments. They’re locked in the here and now and just can’t see beyond that (to high end plasma swords)  for some reason.  It’s weird to me to see a scientist resisting change *(just kidding)*

Lightsaber Physics 101 (aka “A bunch of random ideas I collected”):

Adaptive optics, adjustable optics. Using a magnetic fields to adjust optics or other high speed optical systems, you could adjust the focal length of a high power laser over a specified distance.

Using a very high speed scanner you could adjust the focal point of the laser beam to points, along the light sabre predefined length to generate air plasma bursts due to focused energy. (hey, it’s the future, we fit the power source in a ‘handle’ so I’m sure something super high speed is available now). If you do this fast enough with enough power you can project a holographic beam of any length you desire, the power density limited by the amount of power you can input into this point.

Power sources: Energy density for portable storage is becoming greater every day through the development of new technologies into energy storage technology. This is a HUGE technology growth sector and the companies who are developing the new technologies have the possibility of becoming very large in the very near future.  Nano technologies are currently (pun intended) increasing the power density of common power cells, and increasing their capacities and charging rates exponentially. If you look at some of the new technologies that use carbon nano-tubes in electrode materials, it’s really quite amazing.

Project Description: Increase power density in energy storage packs.  Design a battery powered high energy laser module which is capable of being focused to the point that it generates a plasma in mid air.  Design optics which can adjust their focal point from 0.1 to 1.5 meters on the directional axis at least ?? repeats per second.

References: http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/02/aist-develops-3d-image-projector/

What amazes me is that people have been generating ‘mid-air‘ plasmas for quite some time with their high power lasers and this is the first time anyone’s done this?

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TEA N2 Components w/o HV Supply

Here’s a nice shot down the bore of the nitrogen laser, you can see the 4 screws which hold the front piece of acrylic to the bore, the screws protrude in fairly deep and then there is a piece of microscope cover glass or similar used as a window for the laser bore. I’m just guessing as to the material, but judging from the size, etc I would not be surprised if that is what they used.

TEA N2 Bore Shot 2

In order to better understand the design and operation of the TEA nitrogen laser I have been examining the circuit boards, driver circuits and laser design. I originally hand drew the schematic and then went over it, correcting it if needed. Once I did that work to reverse engineer the schematics I uploaded them into TinyCAD to produce digital versions of the schematics I could modify and relabel as needed.

This schematic may not be complete or 100% accurate, please do not assume it is a fully working circuit and always check your reference materials for the thyratrons and other equipment you are driving. This thyratron driver and TEA nitrogen laser schematic are provided for educational purposes only.

TEA N2 Partial Schematic v0.2

The pre-ionizers are a design I have not seen before in my web travels. The upper and lower electrodes are covered in some type of tape which is used as a dielectric. The pre-ionizer electrodes are etched from a copper board with some sort of dielectric material brushed on over the exposed section of the copper material. When the board is mounted to the electrode with the acrylic clip, it forms a capacitor for the pre-ionizer.

TEA N2 Pre-Ionizer Electrode/Capacitor Plate

TEA N2 Pre-Ionizer Electrode/Capacitor Plate

I took some additional macro-mode photos of the laser bore and electrodes and I have included them in this post.  Larger and more detailed versions of all the images of these nitrogen laser in disassembled are available by clicking them in the gallery below. You can use the navigation arrows in the bottom right hand corner of the image viewer to switch through images.  Enjoy and please feel free to comment or ask questions or provide information at the bottom of this post. All comments are moderated to keep spam out so if it doesn’t show up immediately, it will soon.

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Please stay tuned as I feel this will be a relatively strong community in the laser circle and I hope you will all join me and follow along with our member pages.  I will be carefully verifying websites who join up for membership. The rules are simple.  Laser content, you’re a go, no laser content, or a simple laser links page, no-go!

If you have a current page of your laser, optics or holography work in a hobby or professional sense, we’d love to have you in the ring, and it only requires a little modification of your current web site.  Please go to this link to join the WebRing, if you don’t have a membership with WebRing.com it only takes a few moments to setup, and traffic will immediately begin to flow to your page so your thoughts and information can be shared with like minded people.

I decided to assume management of the WebRing as it was abandoned 4 years ago and stagnating. It has been around for many years and was founded by Flavio S. Due to a personal disagreement with how the WebRing site was wrong he dropped his management role.  4 years later I have picked it up and want to make it something he, myself and all of us can be proud of belonging to.

All references to NightLase will eventually be phased out, unless he wishes to rejoin then it will be another site in the ring. This is not in spite, just simply that NightLase no longer applies to the ring in it’s current form and we must move on to continue grabbing peoples minds and inventive spirits into these wonderful hobbies.

You may notice that I do not have a Laser, Optics and Holography link block on this site. This is a new site, still in transition and the link block can be found on my Original Laser Site along with the link block.

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In particular I am looking towards building a copper chloride experimental laser, because it seems within my means on a resources level, and ‘technical ability’ level as well. Additionally there are already several other home built CuCl lasers out there to base a design or basic features and needs off of.

The first big requirement is a heated cavity.  Most copper solutions require high temperatures in order to properly laser.  Vaporizing copper itself takes extremely high temperatures in the range of  1500 to 1700 degrees Celsius, which is why most people are using copper halides which have a vaporization temperture of 300 to 600 degrees Celsius.

The second major requirement, if you decided against trying to vaporize pure copper, is that copper chloride requires a double pulse to fire properly.  The first pulse disassociates the chloride from the copper, the second pulse is the lasing pulse.  These pulses are very close together, in the range of 100′s of nanoseconds.  Most designs I have seen use a capacitor bank tied to rotory spark gap to generate the timing.

One of the nice points about this kind of laser is that it does not require any kind of special laser optics, which can sometimes be very expensive.

A few of the sites I was looking back at are below. The first is from Chris Chagaris’ website. Back when I was a super-duper laser nut I talked with Chris a lot via email, newsgroup and chatroom on a now defunct website dedicated to laser hobbyists. He is a very smart guy with many science hobbies, and was very willing to share his knowledge.

Chris Chagaris’ CuCl Laser — Actually I can’t seem to find his site anymore, which is a shame, I have an archived copy of it, but no live link to share. If you do a search of his name + laser via your favorite search engine , you are bound to turn up many photos of his various laser designs.

Here are a few other resources though.

The CVL Guide V101 ( Provided by Laser F/X ), this is intended as reference material for home builders and includes most information you will need about the technical requirements of a copper vapor laser.  This is a 20 page PDF file put together by Jeff Aust.

Home Made CuCl Laser Page by Laserist (also available in Italian)

Sam’s Laser FAQ  – Home-Built Copper Chloride (CuCl) and Copper Bromide (CuBr) Laser

I have some reading and planning to do, but I’ll post information, updates and photos as they are available.

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