Commercial laser diodes

We buy a lot of fiber-coupled lasers and photodiodes from Appointech, who seem to be consistently good. Maybe they have free-space stuff too.

Rip apart a DVD burner. You get two high power red diodes (650 and 780 nm) mounted on the same header, with decent heat sinking and a flex circuit to connect with it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Oh thanks. If my first tests work, then I was thinking I could use two fiber coupled PD's to measure light. I think I'd like big fat fibers...which may not be common.

george H.

Ahh that explains the Panasonic part. Oh boy... again perhaps surfing the trailing edge of technology. :^) If it/ they work I'll need to buy a boat load.

George H.

Hey the panasonic DL's are at 780 and 660 nm... It'd be a hoot to have one DL do Rb at 780 and the lamb shift in hydrogen at ~650 nm (I went looking for the right wavelength, but failed.)

George H.

Google DTR Lasers for visible diodes. Caters to the hobbyist / laser show / pointer market. So far he's been a "Good Egg" in ally my transactions over the years.

Steve

Also remember you can steer the wavelength with reflection from a grating..

Steve

Thanks Steve. I've ordered this two wavelength DL from panasonic (650 and 780 nm) I'm not at all sure, but my gut says this correlation measurement has a better chance to work at longer wavelengths.... more photons for same power.. but again I'm not at all sure. And the whole thing could crash and burn.

George H.

Yeah! BTDT at 780 nm. fun stuff! Hey I've got a half baked design for georeg's 'any lamda' diode laser. (different laser and gratings on a common mirror mount type thing.) Steve, you probably already know this, but the most important thing in a grating feed back diode laser is getting the lens position 'just right'.

George H.

Given the declining popularity of CD/DVD drives--how many years has it been since notebooks came with one?--I have been wondering if the days of cheap 405/650/780 nm diode lasers will come to an end in the next few years.

In my experience, getting the laser cavity mode to overlap with the extende d cavity mode is a arguably as important (unless you decap the laser and de posit a coating to reduce the Q of the laser cavity BTDT). Which is why on e mounts the grating on piezos. And if you're going to play with feedback, having an optical isolator to prevent unexpected feedback is what I would put as most important. But I am not aware of a good source for bargain iso lators. :-(

en since notebooks came with one?--I have been wondering if the days of che ap 405/650/780 nm diode lasers will come to an end in the next few years.

ded cavity mode is a arguably as important Right you've gotta have that too... I always wanted a laser diode with AR coating on output.

aser cavity BTDT). Which is why one mounts the grating on piezos. And if you're going to play with feedback, having an optical isolator to prevent u nexpected feedback is what I would put as most important. But I am not awa re of a good source for bargain isolators. :-( Oh I can show you the poor mans optical isolator. Best to stick it right before/ after the reflective surface. You need a linear polarizer and then 1/4 wave-plate. you typically have to tune the wave plate some.

George H.

en since notebooks came with one?--I have been wondering if the days of che ap 405/650/780 nm diode lasers will come to an end in the next few years.

ded cavity mode is a arguably as important (unless you decap the laser and deposit a coating to reduce the Q of the laser cavity BTDT). Which is why one mounts the grating on piezos. And if you're going to play with feedbac k, having an optical isolator to prevent unexpected feedback is what I woul d put as most important. But I am not aware of a good source for bargain i solators. :-(

Stacks of microscope slides at the Brewster angle can be pretty cheap.