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Thread: Laser power fall-off with age

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Indianapolis, IN
    Posts
    196

    Default Laser power fall-off with age

    Does anyone know the typical fall off you can expect with a laser's age? I have several lasers and have been running them regularly for about a year or so.

    Does the output power decay slowly, or rapidly at the end of life?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Cool

    Are you talking about an ion laser, a direct injection diode, or a DPSS laser?

    Ion lasers will fade gradually with time, assuming that you run them regularly to keep their pressure in line.

    Direct injection diodes normally run at very close to original power right up until they die.

    DPSS lasers can fade as they age, but if they're made well this won't be a drastic change. I've seen cheap DPSS lasers that have lost 30% of their power in as little as 500 hours of operation, while others are still making within a couple percent of maximum after over 1000 hours of operation. It all depends on how well the laser was constructed.

    Adam

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