Dpss yag laser

[krazer]

Last August, there was a large laser head listed on ebay as 'Coherent Laser Head'. Originally the seller wanted something like $3000 for it, and over the next few weeks he worked his way down, until I finally got for it for $1000. Then I ran into trouble, Ben was drooling over the head and wanted to see what was inside and post the pictures on his photostream, so he said hey let me go pick it up and since I know how to ship lasers I will ship it to you, that way you will know it will get packaged well and won't get damaged in shipping. So I said sure, and pictures were taken, the head was identified as a Avia Thor (15w 355nm) and the laser was shipped to me. Unfortunately, as it turns out Ben does not in fact know how to ship big lasers, and when the ups man set it on my porch I could hear pieces rattling. The first sign of trouble was this corner:


Then I started taking out screws, and got to see what was inside, and it was pretty ugly...




The root cause ended up being the box was dropped on its corner, from high enough that the foam just didn't cut it, which put the dent in the lid and snapped off the front mount for the plate with all of the optics. The, along the rest of the journey the plate was just flapping around inside, snapping optics off left and right. Luckily, Ben knows how to cover his ass, and shipped the head insured, and after a 6 month long battle with UPS I managed to get a refund for the head

But, I was still left with one problem, I now have a pair donut modules a pair of crystals (one for SHG and one for THG) and a few assorted optics that didn't get destroyed (some 45 degree turning mirrors, a waveplate, nothing too fun)

So I started doing some head scratching, and spent a few late nights playing with solidworks, until I had reverse engineered the donuts and devised a way to properly mount them on my breadboard and get power/water plumbed into them.

The disassembly of the donut modules:



Then I did some drawing:


Followed by some machining, plumbing and wiring:


And some lasing!




Any new guess on power output?

[shrad]

looking at these 3 donut pumps, I'd say 200-ish watts of YAG power... but I doubt ^^

[krazer]

Do you mean output power or pump power?

I am running the pumps about 250w right now (I do not know what they were rated for, but I am assuming they are 20w diodes, which gives 300w total)

[dar303]

Wow, what output do you get?
What are you going to use it for?
Looks proper hightech!

[LesioQ]

Wow! Sexy, exciting view !
As I'm about to do similiar thing but with 5 donuts, I'd love to ask You what rod dia did You choose ? Any FAC optics for diodes ? Do You have separate water flow for YAG and donuts ?
Piotr.K

[Laser Ben]

That is one of two modules out of a Coherent AVIA THOR 15W 355nm System.

[LesioQ]

Hmmm, You mean it's a factory built module ... then sexiness factor must be square-rooted
In my 'design' I'm at the stage of practising DIY lathe work for donut start-end modules
I'm planning to route YAG & bars water flow separately
Piotr.K

[krazer]

6 posts and only one guess on the power? Come on guys

But since the project is already starting to get attacked by those who are jelous, I will start sharing *retaro

See the first post for updates

[ElektroFreak]

And the moral is: No matter how much he might beg, DO NOT let Ben have temporary custody of your lasers unless you're right there with him and can take it home with you.

[Laser Ben]

Then I ran into trouble, Ben was drooling over the head and wanted to see what was inside and post the pictures on his photostream, so he said hey let me go pick it up and since I know how to ship lasers I will ship it to you, that way you will know it will get packaged well and won't get damaged in shipping.

Well, where to start...

First off, you asked me to pick it up and ship it, I did not ask you to let me do that.

Peter: I was thinking of having you pick i up
you are not that far away from what i understand
me: yeah

Secondly, you told me it was fine to open it and document it all I wanted.

Peter: but yeah document it all you want

Finally, it was packed with 6" of medium density foam on all sided. That is more foam then Coherent uses when they ship the system! I had no way to know that UPS would drop do so much damage to the box that it would dent and crush a 3/32" thick aluminum cover. The laser was reboxed

When it was discovered that it was damaged, we worked together on the UPS claim (which paid out the full amount of the laser, and shipping). You got every part of the laser that survived, which was most of the pump module, the crystals, heaters, and many of the optics.

Considering that it was packed better then Coherent, I was amazed that UPS destroyed the laser. You ended up with a free pair of pump units, 2 LBO crystals and heaters, an XYZ stage, and a whole bunch of other parts.