NEOS 8 Ch PCAOM Crystal cleaning question.

[mixedgas]

Um, Lexel used Freon and Isopropanol vapor stills to clean their Brewster Windows and certain intracavity optics... According to the Brewster Stem manufacturing manual I have.
For PCAOM crystals I've used ultra pure acetone on a one pass swab on the AR coatings. The coatings are "Hard" coatings, so a few cleaning passes in the crystal's lifetime are OK. Provided there are no cracks in the coatings.
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Sometimes your into some exotic liquids, like, Freon, or very dry, spectroscopic grade, Ethyl or Butyl Acetate for non-linear crystals such as KTP. My former employer insisted on dry Butyl Acetate for all the non-linear crystals, and we actually flew with slightly less then an ounce in the optics cleaning kit, having had special permission to do so..
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If anyone can get you the small quantity of ultra pure acetone you need, shipped under Argon , its Karl... You'll need to contact him on Facebook or via laserwizardry attt laser wizardry dott comm . He'll have the high grade swabs, too...
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I don't agree with some of the vague techniques in this, preferring evaporative "drop and drag" techniques with high grade lens tissue, but the ultra soft brush and puffer are always a good start..
From a division of the parent company of my former employer:

http://eksmaoptics.com/out/media/CLE...uctions(1).pdf
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Steve

[Vidal Wolf]

S,M & J, thank you for the info on what to use. This has been a great help and I will be ordering the ultrapure dry acetone next week and get ahold of carl for the "good stuff" lens cleaning tissues.
As far as a Freon bath goes, I haven't seen a board cleaning Freon wash in 20 years or so. I used the one at Data I/O a couple of times when I worked there.
-Thanks again.
-Nate.

[kecked]

I'm an old fart. Shows my age! I can order any chemicals from sigma or such direct since I work for a university but then I'd have to reship it to you costing you a fortune. Maybe we could do a group buy for a 5 gallon can and divide it up at a LEM. It would not be a big deal for someone to drive it down and pour it off into other cleaned glass containers. We can also add some drying beads to the bottom to keep it dry. I can wash the beads ahead of time so there isn't even dust from them. Where people go wrong is double dipping direct from the stock bottle when cleaning contaminating it. It's wasteful but pour some off and use that and then discard it. You'll be glad you did. I also pre-rinse the container I'm going to use and dump that before taking a second amount for the actual cleaning.

I don't come to the LEMS or at least I have not but steve could transport it. Jon could order on your coast and do the same since he is a business.

FYI my Freon is no more. Checked last night and the cap had cracked over all the years leaving me with a tiny puddle.