Feasibility of retrofitting DPSS lasers with more powerful pump diodes?

Holography related topics.
pluto
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:06 am

Feasibility of retrofitting DPSS lasers with more powerful pump diodes?

Post by pluto »

Hello all,

Can anyone speak to the feasibility/difficulty of retrofitting DPSS lasers with more powerful pump diodes?

It has been a while since I made a hologram, for several reasons including the mediocrity of my laser (50mW 532nm) and hassle/difficulty of cleaning glass and coating plates.

These are problems that money can solve, but we try to keep the wallet happy too :)

There are plenty of relatively cheap JDSU uGreen and C315-20 lasers on eBay, and I was wondering if one could replace the pump diode with a much more powerful one. What would prevent one from replacing an 808nm pump diode with one which is twice or thrice as powerful? Assuming you select a high quality 808nm diode, of course.

Unless the higher power would damage the optics or something, the only impediment I can think of is the controller not being tuned right for that diode. However, the C315 controller can drive many different laser heads of different power outputs, so assume one replaces the pump diode for a hypothetical 75mW C315 laser head with one which is twice as powerful. The C315 controller can drive a 150mW laser head just fine, so what am I missing?

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Wells_C
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:30 pm

Re: Feasibility of retrofitting DPSS lasers with more powerful pump diodes?

Post by Wells_C »

I'm no expert, but I seem to remember a section on the topic in Sam's Laser FAQ that addresses this issue. My recollection is that certain parts of the laser, specifically the resonator and doubler crystals, are probably designed with the existing power input limits in mind, and may not be able to withstand large increases without damage, so if you are thinking of trying something like that make sure you are ok creating a fancy new paperweight :)

Wells

Edit:
I also recall something to the effect that the difference between 315M heads with different power ratings may not be the diode itself but the tested ability of a particular unit to remain stable at different power points; the heads that were stable at 100mw were set to run at that power, and the ones that were only stable at 20mw were set so that their max output was 20mw.
pluto
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:06 am

Re: Feasibility of retrofitting DPSS lasers with more powerful pump diodes?

Post by pluto »

Thanks Wells_C! I somehow overlooked the actual repair portion of Sam's Laser FAQ, but still there isn't much data on how much you can get out of these things. However it does seem like these lasers use 1-2 watt pump diodes already so there probably isn't much room for improvement.

For a cheap holography laser I think I might try modifying a SSY1 laser head for pulsed 532nm output, Sam linked to a guy's website where he explains how he did exactly that, but elsewhere mentions that it might not be as easy as sticking a frequency doubling crystal in front of the 1064nm beam... Maybe a PL450 diode + ECDL and work towards a fixed and enclosed setup? Dunno.
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