just found this:
http://www.physorg.com/news11251.html
anyone know what strenght diodes are used?
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just found this:
http://www.physorg.com/news11251.html
anyone know what strenght diodes are used?
Needs a bit more then a diode to do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by laserwinkel
Probably 200-300 watts of pump diode.
That is a
Diode pumped femtosecond IR yag.
Steve
It is hard to say from the press release what they were doing, but it usually takes 10-100mJ of energy to create air ionisation (depending on the spot size and pulse length). The story notes the pulse length on the order of a nanosecond (where did you see femtosecond mixedgas?), which matches with a good quality q-switched ND:YAG laser. The pulse rate seems a little low for diode pumped Nd:YAG (which usually run at abut a 1000Hz when optimized for max energy an power). It might be a flashlamp pumped system, or a diode pumped system running with QCW diodes or the likes.
In any case, the easiest way for a hobbyist to get something similar running is to use a SSY-1 laser out of a range finder, which has just enough power to ionize air. You can find more info at my website
That could likely be a Nd:YLF laser. They can have much higher pulse energies due to the longer upper state lifetime, and generally operate up to 5-10khz max.
This is kinda cool. I'm thinking its a co2 or nitrogen source? A diode array 100w+ possibly. I'm not finding any documentation so your guess is as good as mine.
I'll find it for you guys some time tomarrow. BTW, code driving it was/is pangolin for a while.
http://www.physorg.com/news11251.html
That is by far NOT the best web site on the subject...
There are several Japanese groups cloning this, and one US company trying to make a similar device, and the US one is femto..
Steve