Repairing 445nm laser diode

[thomas_kt]

Hello,

i am pretty new here and i have some situation that i would like to share with the rest of you, maybee somebody will find it usefull.

I bought 445nm diode from ebay some day ago and made blue laser pointer. Everything worked fine untill yesterday. When i turned my laser on i've noticed a BIG black "non emiting" area and i though that my diode is burned from some reason ( i'm driving it with 460mA). What actually happened is this... by my mistake, there was some dust or something in housing so some of particles actually burned out at the surface of that glas piece front of diode. I've tryed to clean it out but with no luck. I decided to break diode can and to remove that piece of glass.I done this already couple of times and it IS possible but you gotta have VERY stady hands and precise tool to open that can without breaking LD chip or to break wires that are connecting chip.

Here are some photos:

"bad" diode

burned area

Opened diode

Another one photo of opened

"Repaired" diode operating

Beam shape is in perfect condition, actually it is same as it was with new diode. This artefacts around are because i use plastic lense untill i dont get some otherone.

Any questions, feel free to ask

 

[DTR]

Nice. One of the more interesting decanning jobs I have seen.:laughing:

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

This is what I am worried abou for my build. Hope my lens fits snug.

Congrats on your restored 445!

 

[CKOD]

Nice work! not that bad of an approach, thor labs even sells a can opener for laser diodes
http://www.thorlabs.com/thorProduct.cfm?partNumber=WR1

 

[Netscott]

I have a similar situation with one of my 445 nm diodes where I foolishly tried to clean some dust that had accumulated on the can window with some cloth (a better plan is to use some sort of a dust blower and clear the dust with air/gas). My plan though is to use a fine tooth jewelers saw to remove the whole can rather than just open it up. With any luck I'll manage the same success as you have!
In the meantime I have purchased a replacement diode and so I'm not pressed to do the job.

Thanks for sharing your story!

Thumbs up!

-Scott

 

[Dimitri Stephan]

Damn! I had the exact same problem with my diode and didn't know that you could remove the glass and open the case like that, so I threw it away and got myself another one instead! I've learned my lesson the hard way once again. Thanks for the useful info!