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Thread: Ruby Laser Built by Ben Krasnow

  1. #1
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    Default Ruby Laser Built by Ben Krasnow

    Ben Krasnow has a YouTube channel with a number of very interesting projects. The explanations he provide in his videos are very clear and educational - much like our PL member, Planters.

    His latest video is a ruby laser he built:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv0ynKBCIs

    Quite an impressive capacitor bank.

  2. #2
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    Poor guy, he's throwing 33% of his power away in the rod mounting technique...
    O-rings go around the rod, not in the face of it. The dust from the burning o-ring will damage the rod faces in that design...
    Which he mentions has happened in the video..

    Steve
    Last edited by mixedgas; 11-01-2015 at 15:10.
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  3. #3
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    I have a question on the way he is cooling it, wont the water also absorb some of the light needed by the ruby? I think this is where a YAG rod would do a bit better as i undertsand it is a ruby rod is not totally bathed in the pumping light then the darker spots will absorb the laser light, cause uneven heating and even damage the rod, where YAG will transmit the laser light though areas that may not be at the same light energy.
    His cap set up is interesting and must have taken a lot of time to make all the little bars to connect it up, he is still at about 6 times the energy level i can do though DIY is fun as hell. My luck with his type of set up would have one cap some place in the middle go bad, lol
    Remember Remember The 8th of November, When No One Stood, but Kneel, In Surrender
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    I like his channel and his willingness to admit when his assumptions go awry. Steve is obviously right. Another solution would be to incorporate windows in his cavity and then completely bathe the ruby with water.

    Water has a very wide transmittance band that is nearly as good as the quartz of the flash lamp itself.

    YAG would be more forgiving in regard to self absorption by the ground state chromium , but then you must be satisfied with IR or going the whole doubling route.

    The low peak energy requirements of the ruby allows him to use electrolytic capacitors. These store a lot of power/$ and the slow rise time is easy on the lamp, so much higher energy impulses can be dumped compared with usec discharges.

  5. #5
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    I have seen other people use inductors to help protect the lamp and i have done the same for one experiment

    I had thought ruby was in the low IR band and the visible flash was just spill from the flash lamp
    Last edited by Draco; 11-07-2015 at 13:42.
    Remember Remember The 8th of November, When No One Stood, but Kneel, In Surrender
    In a popular government when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can come only from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost. Montesquieu

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