HeNe Lasers

[The_Dork]

Does anyone have any experience with HeNe lasers?

If so, could you relate your experiences in relation to those diode pumped lasers. I know that with the HeNe lasers the beams are more "pure" and easier to focus in theroy, but whould like to hear some real world experiences.

Thanks
thedork

I am interested in a unit from MI Lasers
I think it would be even cooler to see one of these units pumping 1W LOL /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif (of course that's a joke, but would be needed for a plastic cutting project I had in mind)

 

[WildRice]

For plastics, a few watts of CO2 would work. As far as diode vs. gas, If you compare RED lasers, HeNe is better, better beam shape, polorization, and divergence. Now if you get into green, besides the largest green HeNe I have seen is 4mW ($$,$$$), I have only seen a green HeNe from afar.

HEY CRAIG, you have/had a green HeNe, how do they compare to diode.

Jeff

 

[The_LED_Museum]

[ QUOTE ]
WildRice said:
HEY CRAIG, you have/had a green HeNe, how do they compare to diode.

[/ QUOTE ]
My green HeNe only produces 10µW to 12µW (microwatts) and then starts sputtering about 1 minute after being energised; it was originally rated for 0.23mW. So I've done less experimentation with this particular laser than I could have.

The beam is TEM00 (transverse electromagnetic mode 00), which generally means it produces a single circular beam with a gaussian power distribution.
Its coherence length is longer than that of any diode, but I've never had that tested. Coherence length is beneficial when creating holograms, but really does not matter when using the laser for most other purposes.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful in this regard. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif