Natural Science Forum / Physics / Optics / April 2007

I have a YQL-102 by laser photonics arriving in a few weeks, does
anybody have any manuals/data/lamp type for this beast?  Its the non
doubled version of the infamous
"ruby" fingerprint laser that caused such a consternation on ebay a

Please can someone tell me the difference between Leitz EF and Plan
achromatic 160 mm objectives? Also, did they co-exist or did one
preceed the other?

Hello, I hope you'll indulge my layman's language and help with a
current project using lenses that are small, between 5mm and 10mm.
I'm trying to find out what shaped lens, for a given diameter, will
have the maximum amount of light gathering ability (to ultimately be

I will be using a 780 nm diode laser for absorption spectroscopy of
Iodine molecules....  My quick question is what is this equivalent to
in energy level terms measured in cm^-1?  I have worked it out to be
12820 cm^-1...  Is this correct?

I am using John Walker's code:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/specrend/specrend.c
from his page:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/specrend/

Re:  US (and Russian) space-based directed-energy weapons.
Putin recently said:   "Star wars is no longer a fantasy - it is a
reality."
http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?sprache=en&id=179

I need a diode laser with low power such as 30 mW around 580nm. When
used in cavity-lock scheme it should have a tunable range about 100GHz
(or minimum 50GHz) by tuning a single parameter. My questions are: are
they exist, where can I buy them (price for 2-5), can I lock it with

Can anyone give me some advice? I am trying to minupulate a laser to
so direct point of impact is 55"s wide but can still be .002 in
height. I am trying to slightly burn into a polypropelyne, But with a
beam that is 55"s wide. I didnt know if anyone knew of a way to direct

I am trying to find out on what media I can print boooklet covers for saddle
stiched booklets. I need cover strong enough, something like like filke
folders. I am using HP LaserJet 1300. Any suggections?

(My apologies if this shows up twice.  My system glitched as I was
sending it, and I'm not sure it went out.)
I need to do some high-speed (>GHz) testing of some visible-light
photodetectors, including building the test setup.

We'd like to image the output face (the core area) of a fiber onto the
input face (core) of an identical
fiber with the highest coupling efficiency possible. The wavelength is
800 nm.  What is the best method to achieve this?

Does anyone know anything about the noise you hear when pulsed lasers
are used?  I found this video recently -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cm9iKt6ROE&mode=related&search= - a
ruby laser in action - and I noticed the loud cracking noise when the

I am using a Continuum NY82 Nd:YAG.  The laser was built in 1992, and
its power has depreciated over time.  I am looking for some parts for
the laser oscillator head to improve its performance.  Continuum does
not sell parts for this system anymore.  I suppose that we need to

       I stumbled on some more SC2000 materials, one of them being a fairly
huge and comprehensive command language reference including a fairly
large programming tutorial with examples. This was produced by GSI, and
being that I don't use any digital scan heads, I have no idea ...

For reading & looking at small electronic components i am using a handheld
4" diameter, 3 power, 11" FL handheld glass magnifier.
The lens was purchased from a flea market & is of questionable quality. Are
their quality handheld single magnifying glasses (lens) available that are