Newbie- Building a Laser

[TDHofstetter]

Hi, guys. Never posted here before, but ne'er mind me for the moment. Here's the deal:

My nephew - for his own (very good) reasons, wants to do something pretty significant for a high-school science project before graduation - namely build a copper vapor laser, one of the very few kinds of laser that can be practically built at home.

BUT... although he knows theory pretty well, he'd be tickled spitless if he could find someone who'd be willing to walk him through some of the details, tutoring remotely (or locally, but the chances of that are slim).

I've offered to machine any parts he needs & generally help with as much of the detailed stuff as I can, but I've never built (nor helped anyone else build) a laser.

Anybody out there with laser construction experience interested in helping a budding genius shoot at a star?

For reference, the copper-vapor laser uses any of the copper halides (chloride, bromide, or iodide), and optionally with the addition of copper nitrate to bring operating temperature down to 180C at emission time. It produces two simultaneous colors, green at 510.6 nm and yellow at 578.2 nm, pulse duration between about 5ns and 60ns. It needs to be triggered by a tandem pulse train at about 15KV.

Thank ya - thank ya all.

[plcamp]

I'm not a laser expert, however this site may be of some value....
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserccb.htm

good luck..PLCamp

[TDHofstetter]

Good link! Thanks - every little bit helps.

-- Tim --

[blackbeard52]

http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/18.htm is a low powered laser .... it is not copper vapor laser...it is built out of a salvaged DVD burner... maybe a better high school level project.

Bob

[tufanca]

Hi friends I got myself open-source laser in his hand as if made, please help. Send mail, please talbistan@hotmail.com