Nanolase head, need pinout or drive requirements information

[shrad]

this laser is designed to be pumped CW, according to sam's laser faq

and another thing is the Cr4+:YAG is not inside the cavity, if the mirrors are coated on the crystal

that's the main reason I was puzzled about its use

and for alignment, I don't think it is such critical as the Cr4+ is mounted on the lid, in fact glued to a bolt which is bolted to a part of the beamlock outside (the lid is sandwiched between the beamlock and the Cr4+ base, which is itself bolted to a tube passing through the lid)

I still think the Cr4+ orientation is important, as it is placed at brewster angle and the polarization plane of the laser should be aligned... I tried by rotating/bolting the assembly more or less till I observed peak power on a piece of paper

another thing, the collimating lens was placed against the crystal, but that led to at least 15% of the beam dispersed AROUND the Cr4+, which is not really optimal I think, so I readjusted for approx. 15% free Cr4+ area around the beam, passing from 4mrad average to 2mrad average divergence (if that makes sense for you, I'm not native english so please be kind )

the cavity is really nice, but there are massive flows due to niche market and commercial pressure I think... focal point not into the crystal for the output of the GRIN, crystal was offset left to the point that the beam was slightly cut off by the mount, and overall alignment was a bit poor (cavity mount tilted approx 15° from parallel axe), not to mention no laser diode beam correction at all, leading to poor pump efficiency and losses at GRIN aperture

[krazer]

Can you confirm that the OC is actually on the crystal? You mentioned that you were able to get green out of it with a KTP, that is not (normally) possible with a 100mw CW 1064nm beam, so I assumed you were putting it in the space where the CR4+ was (ie, inside the cavity, assuming that there was an external OC).

If you were getting that much green from the output then it is probably working flawlessly

[catalanjo]

Sounds to me that the OC is precisely what´s missing here !

Cheers

[shrad]

the KTP was placed in front of the crystal without any external OC, but that was the case with the crystalaser it came from, and reversing the KTP produced way less lasing

the only thing puzzling me is the external Q-switch...

[krazer]

If that is the case then the Cr4+ is indeed bonded to the vandate, and the laser is running q-switched already. The block on the roof is probably some type of IR filter, possibly to block the 808nm? Are you sure that is is actually Cr4+

[catalanjo]

If that is the case then the Cr4+ is indeed bonded to the vandate, and the laser is running q-switched already. .........

Yup that would explain where the OC got to ! ... LOL...
Cheers

[shrad]

the thing is the block is grainy dark as Cr4+ is, and it has a goldish coating...

I'll try to hook a photodiode to my scope and check, as those are in the 10~12kHz repetition rate

Anyway, even if this is only a CW 1064nm laser head, it is still a bargain at the $15 I paid for it