beam exits at a slight angle

[gashead]

Greetings,

I have a DPSS module, where the beam seems to exit at a slight angle as opposed to straight out of the head itself.

Any tips or tricks on how I could go about rectifying this ? it's no biggie but makes alignment that bit more challenging!

Chur chur.

N.

[gottaluvlasers]

all dpss lasers have beams exiting at some sort of an off axis angle. some worse than others. its not a sign of a defect or anything dont worry.

-Marc

[madgadget]

Why does that happen then ? (Out of interest)

[Carl B]

This tends to happen when the final lens that focuses the beam is not quite set perfectly straight on with the cavity.

Carl

[stanwax]

Correct Carl
If there is any adjustment of the internals often the beam is thrown out of kilter and moving either of the 2 lens that sit beyond the OC will 'move' the beam. If you have a laser with a nose on the front slacken the screws and change its position and you will get a small ammount of movement. Or look at where the beam is hitting the last lens - if its off centre then taking said nose off and rotating through 120 degrees (they tend to have 3 screws) may do what you need if not try it round the next 120...

Rob

[mixedgas]

because the sweet spot on the crystals is rarely on the mechanical centerline of the crystal as cut, The more expensive the laser, the better the cut. The crystals are oriented by a x-ray scattering system, and this takes time. time = money.

Steve

[MechEng3]

Very typical of "bulk" lasers. The cavity is set up {aligned} and then dropped into a laser with the diode and TEC parts already installed. Then the output optics are usually added and somewhat aligned to the center of the unit. You could opt to go in and realign the whole cavity at a risk of losing a lot of power or getting nothing better than you have now. I would opt to leave it considering the possible outcome......unless you are like me....looking for a challenge.

[gashead]

Very typical of "bulk" lasers. The cavity is set up {aligned} and then dropped into a laser with the diode and TEC parts already installed. Then the output optics are usually added and somewhat aligned to the center of the unit. You could opt to go in and realign the whole cavity at a risk of losing a lot of power or getting nothing better than you have now. I would opt to leave it considering the possible outcome......unless you are like me....looking for a challenge.

I'll pass - it's a fairly bright 400mw 473nm and at the risk of breaking what has turned out to be a fairly expensive bit of kit I'll leave it well alone.

Thanks to all those who replied !

N.