This is a collection of interesting pictures of my projects that may or may not have been published on this website, in no particular order. Just scroll through and enjoy!
Mid-build picture of the Pr:YLF laser module. The pump diode is clearly visible.
Very clean TEM (2,1) mode from a Pr:YLF laser. Wavelength is 607nm.
Setup for the Pr:YLF laser to emit green light. Uses a dichroic mirror to pass the pump beam and couple the beam out of the setup.
Pr:YLF laser emitting an orange (607nm) laser beam. Really beautiful color!
Pr:YLF laser emitting a multi-mode 640nm beam.
Beamshot of the Pr:YLF laser emitting a beautifully clean TEM(4,0) mode. You can also see the speckle in the beam that is typical for lasers.
Beamshot of the Pr:YLF laser emitting a beautifully clean TEM(10,0) mode, even though some of the mode is cut off by the output aperture.
Beamshot of the Pr:YLF laser, emitting in a doughnut mode. Adjusting the mirrors just slightly away from this point results in either a TEM(0,0) or TEM(0,1) mode.
Big Ti:Sa crystal being pumped by a green laser beam. You can clearly see the fluorescing stripe inside of the crystal.
Absorption measurement of a Ti:Sa crystal for 520 nm using a homemade measuring head.
Ti:Sa crystal being pumped by the focussed beam of a frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser.
Close up of a small brewster cut Ti:Sa crystal I got from Optogama for a very good price. I am currently working on a DPSS Ti:Sa laser.
Optics setup for a laser module meant to pump a Ti:Sa laser. Two 465nm FAC 4W diodes and a 1.5W green diode are shaped and combined into one beam. The optics are from Live Lasersystems.
The optics for the pump module are glued into placed using some UV-curing glue I got from Live Lasersystems.
Cuvette of Coumarin-1 dissolved in Ethanol lasing under N2-Laser pumping.
Shaping and combination of three laser diodes into one powerful beam.
Full setup of the laser module meant for pumping a Ti:Sa laser. It is fully PID-TEC-cooled with a big heatsink and emits about 8 W of collimated laser power.
Pump beam for the TiSa-laser being focussed into the air. It is so powerful that it is visible in the air by rayleigh scattering.
3D-printed back axle for a 4 wheel drive spring suspended RC car.
SLA-printed diamond lattice of carbon atoms (to scale).
SLA-printed diamond lattice of carbon atoms (to scale).
Dichroic cube splitting white light into red, green and blue components.
Transversely excited (at atmospheric pressures) nitrogen UV laser. Uses plain air as the lasing medium, doesn't need resonator mirrors.
Transversely excited (at reduced pressures) nitrogen UV laser emitting 337nm light which excited the dye inside printer paper.
Cuvette of Rhodamine-6G dissolved in Ethanol lasing under N2-Laser pumping.
Cuvette of Fluoresceine dissolved in Ethanol lasing under N2-Laser pumping.
Cuvette of Rhodamine-B dissolved in Ethanol lasing under N2-Laser pumping.
Cuvette of Fluoresceine dissolved in Ethanol fluorescing under a blacklight.
Setup for a diode pumped intracavity doubled Nd:YAG Laser (folded resonator). Didn't put out as much power as the concentric setup so I didn't use this design in the end.
Setup for a diode pumped intracavity doubled Nd:YAG Laser (concentric resonator).
Beamshot of the DPSS intracavity doubled Nd:YAG laser.
Setup for measuring the PWM frequency of the Arduino controlling the TEC-driver of the DPSS Nd:YAG laser. Had to change the timer bits to make it around 20 kHz.
Setup for measuring the thermal resistance of the heatsink of a DPSS Nd:YAG laser using a high power resistor and a thermocouple.
Ruby laser rod cut and polished by me (right) and professionally (left) for DPSS lasers. Right one unfortunately doesn't work, a coating or brewster cutting should do the trick though.
Pump beam spot (bottom) and mode volume spot (top) inside a short ruby laser crystal.
Close-up of a small ruby laser crystal being pumped by a 405nm laser diode.
Fully working laser setup for a DPSS ruby laser pumped by 405nm. This laser emits a beautiful deep red a 694nm.
DIY Galvo engraver using a 5W 450nm laser module and stepper motors. Works generally, but correcting the beam to get a tight focus was difficult.
DIY Galvo engraver using a 5W 450nm laser module and stepper motors whilst engraving.
Head of the DIY Galvo engraver. The beam is corrected by a pair of anamorphic prisms, focussed by a f250mm lens and directed by two mirrors connected to stepper motors.
A wooden enclosure cut on the homemade 40W CO2 laser. Works just fine on 4mm poplar plywood.
Close-up on a 7mW 650nm laser diode. You can clearly see the diode chip! Click on the picture to see more.
Found out that engraving on anodised aluminium is possible even with a relatively low power (40 W) CO2 laser.
Small test setup for fiber coupling a red laser diode. Works, but the coupling efficiency is not great, probably need a shorter focal length lens.
Shining a laser pointer on a diffraction grating results in this picture. It clearly shows the monochromacy of laserlight.
Spectral shape of a red laserpointer. Click on the picture to go to the GitHub-page of the program author, Les Wright
White light when looked at through a spectroscope. The diffraction grating inside the spectroscope splits the white light into all of its components.
Homemade spectrometer based on a raspberry pi, a USB camera and a spectroscope. The software is from Les Wright.
Xenon flashlamp being triggered by high voltage but no storage capacitor attached. Very interesting to look at!
Laser power measuring head consisting of a photodiode and a neutral density filter for measuring higher power lasers. With the corresponding device, sub-mW lasers can be registered consistently but calibrating is an issue.
Homemade device for amplifying and evaluating a photodiode signal for laser power measurements.
Massive aluminium heatsink for a TEC-based thermal laser power measuring device.
Laser power measurement by using a TEC. One side (covered with black soot) absorbs the beam, heats up and the resulting voltage is measured by an op amp and supporting electronics. Capable of measuring of powers as low as single Milliwatts.
Close-up of a hole the pulsed Nd:YAG laser punched into a razorblade.
High power pulsed Nd:YAG laser pumped by two xenon flashlamps. The capacitors are charged up to over 300J of energy. Punches through multiple razorblades without issue.
Prototype of the dual flashlamp pumped high power Nd:YAG laser.
Final version of a homemade RC car with 4 wheel drive and suspension. Pretty fast!
Lithopanes may work well with FDM, but SLA really brings out some great details! These picures are made just by thickness variations of the material.
Close-up of the spindle of my homemade CNC-router which I use to make the aluminium parts for my laser setups.
My homemade CNC-router. I went through many design iterations to get it to be fully reliable, but it is there now.
Home made circuit board for creating an exact 1Hz square signal.
Melting aluminium oxide crystals and chromium oxide together using an arc welder results in polycrystalline rubies. This is a thin slice of one under a microscope.