10W Copper Vapour Laser Operation: VIDEO

[turbohead]

Most of us can only dream of owning or standing next to an operating Copper Vapor laser. Thank you for the through description and demonstration of your amazing laser.

[VDX]

...
Mercury would be at so high a vapor pressure in that hot tube that it would not lase.

... I'm remembering a pretty old DIY-plan in "Spektrum der Wissenschaft" (drawn from "Scientific American") from maybe 1978 or so, where a Mercury vapour laser was made with some glass tubes, with brewster-windows on the main tube ends, between the two resonator mirrors.

The Mercury was placed in a small 'pocket'-tube and should be heated before starting with a lighter, then 15kV was applied and the resonator should emit a red line -- don't know, how good the vacuum should be ...

Viktor

[mixedgas]

The Sci Am Hg does about 10-15 mW on two visible
Lines. To really get power out of Hg takes a
System with a hollow cathode tube and a pulse forming network with a thyratron.

[planters]

That is why I brought up Hg. The tube temperature does not have to run as hot as the Cu however, I don't know how much control you would have if the entire source of the heat is the discharge. I remember the Sci Am article as well and the buffer gas control, thyraton pulsing discharge, large bore discharge tube seem to be much of what is needed. Nevertheless, I don't want to get away from the Cu when it is working so well. I would like to see if tweaking the buffer with Cl and hydrogen makes a difference. Also, when the cavity is so undemanding, it would be interesting to see other configurations like an unstable resonator, etc.

[mixedgas]

I used to have two friends with 5-7 Watt Copper Bromide lasers. These ran off single phase and had more of the 578 in the balance.
The tubes are Quartz, not Alumina and thus are far easier to construct. Warm-up time was about 10 minutes with the external heater.

So Dan, where is the diffraction grating photo shot?

Steve

[danielbriggs]

So Dan, where is the diffraction grating photo shot?

I only had a Machado to hand and the results didn't capture too well on video.
Next time; I'll get a standard grating out

[discothefunkyhippo]

Thanks Dan for taking the time to record the video and throw it up on the tube. I found it very interesting.

[Crazy]

Very informative! It seems amazing to me that you can take what essentially is just a giant oven, add mirrors and copper, and get a laser. Pretty awesome!

[ImageLight]

Love this video... Want to try and fire up my Oxford CU-15 someday... Just need a bottle of neon and the vacuum pump oil serviced..