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Thread: Red in an RGB setup - please help me decide

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Charleston, SC
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    Cool

    Hi Matt;

    You can indeed get lots of red from a gas laser. Well, more specifically it's an Ion laser. A Krypton Ion laser, that is.

    Krypton lasers are normally outfitted to produce red light at 647 nm, though they can also produce green at 530 nm. (There are lots of other lines too, but the gain is really low for them and thus they are normally not used.)

    The problems with using a Krypton laser are:
    1) it's a big, bulky laser that will consume a *lot* of electrical power. (220V minimum at 15-20 amps. Even more if you want greater than 500 mw of output)
    2) it will require substantial cooling - either several very loud fans or water cooling.
    3) blanking can not be done electrically through the power supply. You need to use a galvo, or better yet an AOM or PCAOM. The galvo option is cheaper, though it's cumbersome and will only give you on or off. The AOM/PCAOM route is more expensive, more difficult to align, and will cost you 10-15% of your power output, but will give you true analog intensity control.

    Truthfully though, if you're thinking about making the jump to an Ion laser, it's not that much further to just go with an Argon/Krypton mixed gas whitelight laser. This way you get a whole bunch of lines from 647 nm all the way to 456 nm, and so long as you have a decent 6 or 8 channel PCAOM, you can adjust the intensity of each line. Of course, we're into some serious money at this point too... (PCAOM's aren't cheap. Figure $1500 to $2000)

    The price difference favors solid state lasers for power levels under a half watt. From 500 mw up to around a watt or so it's about even between solid state and Krypton. (You can get deals on used Krypton lasers and AOM's, which helps lower the cost of going with an Ion laser. Just don't forget about the increased operating costs.) Once you get beyond a watt or two Krypton will be much cheaper, and beyond that you really don't have any choice but to go with a Krypton laser.

    So, how baddly do you want that 700 mw of red?

    Adam
    Last edited by buffo; 04-04-2007 at 15:47.

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