Vintage Nd:YLF?

[Eidetic]

This big dirty old laser head is a Coherent "Antares" model A76 made in January, 1992. It was in a scrap yard right here in Mesa, on its nose against a wall when I arrived to pick it up this morning. Everything is there and really dirty, but it's the kind of dirty I love cleaning up! Only thing missing is one of the cover clamps, seen in the second pic below. The hunt is on!!!

This is the first Nd:YLF laser I've added to the collection. When I saw it I thought '92 was about the earliest I remember hearing about YLF. Apparently it was put into service commercially to pump Ti:Sapphire in the late '80s to early '90s, despite being slightly soluble in water (the cooling water). I hope this rod is intact. I think this one qualifies as a Big Scary Laser, but wonder if 1992 is "vintage". Regardless, I saved this one from the dump, and now I get to cleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaannnn it!!!

[krazer]

Nice find, did you by chance get the modelocker that goes with it? Should be a fun laser to play with in any case, just keep the DI water clean!

[Eidetic]

Don't know about the mode locker. It'll be a week before I can really get to disassembling it to see what's in there, but I think it's in there. Don't have much experience with big solid state lasers.