Mixedgas stays away from those dye monsters after spending a week trying to align one from scratch with no manual and with some mirrors moved along the rail to where they did not belong. The difference between that laser and a 699 or 899 family is the addition of active intracavity optics to aid in mode locking and a high speed photodiode. A mode locked laser pumped from another mode locked laser often needs its cavity round trip time tuned to match the pump . If it has the fine tuning galvo you need a way of driving the galvo, too..
Warning, other then the pump beam aiming optics, don't touch a single adjustment on that cavity, unless you like pain. I did not have the benefit of the week long owner's training at the factory on how to align/operate those. Odds are by handling it, its already out of fine alignment and well on its way of loosing course alignment.
The dye laser will run off a CW pump with the right optics set installed and enough pump power. Plus there were multiple optics sets for different dyes or wavelength regions. So unless you know what dye type it was ordered for, you may find yourself struggling ...\
If you buy an Antares, see it run before purchase. Or make sure the pump lamp cavity has 100% intact gold, not etched away by the cooling water. make sure the arc lamp clips are not ruined by the DI water. Antares is not a beginers level YAG..
Trade the darn dye thing to Laser Innovations for a 599 OEM Medical dye head or sp 375 . That way a 5-7 watt DPSS Green with a tight beam can get you past threshold for R6G dye. Those 599 are complex enough as it is, but better a high energy 599 with a four mirror cavity then a infinitely complex mode locked head to learn on. For MODE LOCKING you will need a 500 Mhz 0r 1 Ghz oscilloscope just to see if he laser is properly adjusted.
YLF slowly dissolves in it's cooling water... So odds of YLF being good or at full power after decades is poor. Round here, with clean water, YLF gets replaced every 2-3 years.
Steve (I've taken more then one Antares to its funeral at the dump, You could not give me a working one for free, great laser, but NO parts available ANYWHERE )
No I do not have the manuals anymore, except for the 599, and there is a scan of that archived on PL. It will not help you with the big monster. I helped Jon Singer (Joss Labs) get a 599 OEM going with a borrowed DPSS 532 pump and it took him weeks of spare time, for a few hundred microwatts of CW dye. He was just above threshold with a 3.2 watt DPSS. His blog on it is out there some where... BTW< when 40 PSI of Dye goes wrong, its called a mess, and if you have a wife, it may be called a Divorce....
Last edited by mixedgas; 08-06-2019 at 09:34.
Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
When I still could have...