Lasers and cold temperatures

[polishedball]

OK since winter is here and I am cheap, hey gotta save money for lasers right? I keep my heat at 48 degrees when my daughter isn't here. Tonight I tried to watch a laser show first time since it is real cold (just watched one perfect 4 days ago), first my red 660's on a flexmod n2 decided to show all there blanking lines, then my green all but disappeared and was actually coming out the head as 2 separate beams that could be seen a dead spot in the middle. I had no color balance it is a mess.

These problems remained even after 45minutes. Touching the green laser it was ice cold.

Can all these problem be caused by just the drop in temperature? The only thing that stayed correct and looked right was the 445 on a flexmod 3.


thanks

[allthatwhichis]

Most definatly; me CNI green don't like the cold. I live in FL and you tell just by it dropping into the 50s at night.

[badger1666]

yep lasers are only truly happy at 77deg/f
get your hair dryier out and warm them up a bit thats what i do when its cold

[QUAZAR]

Get an aircooled argon.
Both the laser and house will soon get toasty warm.

[buffo]

Can all these problem be caused by just the drop in temperature?

For the DPSS lasers, yes. Frequency-doubling is very temperature-sensitive. A shift of just a few degrees in the doubling crystal is enough to drop the efficiency into single-digit range. (Meaning, you get little if any visible output.) I have a fan-disable switch on my projector for exactly this reason. (Learned the hard way that it won't run outside at night when it gets cold!)

Most direct injection lasers are less prone to temperature problems, and even in cases where they are temperature sensitive, usually you'll see a wavelength shift rather than a power loss. But DPSS lasers *must* be kept at the optimal temperature, or you will experience power loss.

Adam