Little Junk Laser is a MEGAWATT Beast!

Episode 59

#photonics
#Laser

In this episode, a sub $30 dollar junk tattoo laser is torn right down, repaired and re-assembled into a bench-top instrument.
During the repair, theory is covered, as well as some practical alignment techniques.
A home made, high voltage power supply is constructed for it, generating 100 Joules for the flash-lamp.
The final Solid State Q-switched nanosecond Neodymium:YAG Laser has megawatt level peak powers, capable of vaporising materials, generating plasma in the air, and frequency doubling to green.
Power measurement is done using a Joule Meter, a fast picosecond risetime photodiode, and an oscilloscope, with some very surprising results!

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0:00 Intro
0:43 Overview of the Laser
3:24 Diagram and explanation the Laser
5:11 Tear-down of the Cavity
5:22 Extracting the Xenon Flash Lamp and Laser Rod
5:52 Examining the Neodymium rod and Xenon Flash Lamp
6:40 Corrosion and gunk
8:07 All cleaned
9:02 Replacing the mirror mount
9:38 Mounting Base
10:20 Finished assembly
10:31 How to Align a Laser
11:15 Safety First!
11:43 Home made High voltage Power Supply
13:57 Laser connected
14:24 First Light and final alignment!
15:54 Q-Switching!
16:21 Laser induced breakdown
16:30 Frequency doubling!
16:43 Measuring the Laser Power
17:24 Analysis of the Laser output pulse
19:34 Pockels Cell
19:42 Future experiments
20:06 Credits