Did laserglow drop their Hades series?

[Ashton]

I went to laserglow's website from this link:
http://www.laserglow.com/hercules.html

previously, on the side/bottom of the page, they had a link to their 4 series: Hercules, Hades, Aries, and vega, now the link only has the herk, vega, and aries. Did they drop the Hades line?

 

[SenKat]

Nope - look here : http://www.laserglow.com/hades.html
I clicked on "products" and brought it right up....

 

[Ashton]

Ok, I feel stupid...

I wonder why they took it off the quick-links... it's by far the cheepest-per-mw high-end laser they have

 

[pseudonomen137]

If you want cheap per mW, there are 808nm and 980nm versions of this laser too which offer more power at a better price (PM for more info if necessary). They don't offer the better beam specs though you get from the 1064nm DPSS, but I honestly have trouble seeing why anyone would need any of those three IR lasers in the first place.

 

[liveforphysics]

You know that you can build a "Hades" for about $50, or even make a much higer powered IR laser, like 2W, for around $150.

You could run the out of something like this into a lens, or break off the fiber couple and use a cheapy lens.
http://cgi.ebay.com/3-WATT-808NM-FI...ryZ26261QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If you just wana do +500mW, you can use these, and an optic like we do with the DVD burner diodes. How do I know that it works? Because I have a pair of +500mW IR lasers sitting here, and I dont have a full 100 bucks into the pair of them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/500mw-808nm-Las...ryZ53141QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

However, even +500mW is still not adquate to do jack with as far as being useful for anything beyond thin dark plastic and black paper.

Gotta get about 10W before a laser can start to be useful for actually useing as a tool beyond pointing at things or poping balloons, and even the 25W lasers in the labs back a college were only semi-useful for anything beyond makeing little marks on the surfaces of things.

 

[Ashton]

lol, yes, I saw a 1-watt 808nm diode WITH heatsync for <$100, if I built a case WITH all the regulators it probably wouldn't cost more than $200 unless I added a lot of extra bells and whistles, I'm just a little scared to play with building a housing for an IR diode --- in case I slip and cross two wires and fire off the laser and it reflects and blinds me (did this with a low powered red diode already and was lucky it wasn't pointed at anything reflective.)

 

[pseudonomen137]

Liveforphysics. The Hades is a 1064nm DPSS laser - VERY different from what you are talking about. The Hades has bothers that are just 808nm diodes pretty much, but they have horrible beam specs. Because Hades is a DPSS though, the price is much higher and the beam specs are comparable to a green laser.

 

[SenKat]

Regardless of WHAT you do with lasers - always play safely ! If you build a 4 bajillion watt system for fun an games in your basement - just play safe ! The IR lasers hold a certain fascination for me - I have to admit - the "invisible" aspect intrigues the crap outta me - I have a 1 watt coherent diode (fibre coupled) at 808nm - and was not too impressed, as of course - it was not a collimated beam. Watch this LAME video to see what I mean....

http://stonetek.org/VIDS/808nm_demo.wmv

 

[liveforphysics]

You're right, it is a 1064nm, which means its useing a 808nm pump into a yttrium vanadate crystal, then through a lens.

Much like if you took a green laser and broke off the KTP side of the crystal and reassembled.

Could you explain your thoughts in reguards to why a lens fixture in front of the diode would somehow have worse beam specs than a greenie?

The reds and IR's that I have built in this mannor seem to have very low divergence after spending the time to adjust the lens to focus on a very distant target. Of course with the IR this required a digi-cam with the IR filter peeled off the CCD.

I'm just curious why going through a YVO4 would be improving the beam.

 

[pseudonomen137]

Yes, I understand the pump process for these lasers. Don't forget that Nd:YAG is also used instead of ortho vanadate, though the Hades probably is Nd:YVO4.

A bare diode is highly divergent and the beam specs aren't great (unless we're talking about VCSELs). The DPSS process though gives a chance to correct for this. Remember, this isn't some magic crystal we stick in front of a diode to change its color. The process is far more intensive than that in ways I don't even really understand to the fullest, but the general characterists of the DPSS process and lasing within the crystal just allow better beam specs. Keep in mind though, with the bare diode you're limited by the properties of it to poor beam specs. However when you pump vanadate, the vanadate becomes the laser. It's not some random optic along the way, it re-radiates a whole new laser, with a whole new set of (better) beam specs.

If you don't believe me, feel free to check up the specs on these lasers themselves. The manufacturer specs on the bare diode 808 and 980s are <5mRad and 6mm at aperture, whereas the 1064 Hades matches the 532nm Aries at <1.5mRad and 1.5mm at aperture. That's a HUGE difference, and you can see it in the lasers. The bare diodes ones diverge horribly if you want a small diameter at aperture. If you want good divergence, you get a huge initial diameter.

I don't doubt that, using a weaker lens, you can get great divergence, but your initial dot size will also be pretty large. You can see this on the Glowtorch, WL pulsar, etc. You get somewhat better divergence than the greenies, and in exchange a HUGE dot size. If you check out specs on bare diode and DPSS lasers across the board, you will see the DPSS are generally FAR better than the bare diodes ones.