In the past half-century, lasers have gone from expensive physics experiments using rods of ruby to cheap cutting or engraving tools, and toys used to tease cats. Advances in physics made it all possible, but it turns out that ruby lasers are still a lot of fun to play with, if you can do it without killing yourself.
With a setup that looks like something from a mad scientist movie set, [styropyro]’s high-powered laser is a lot closer to the ray gun of science fiction than the usual lasers we see, though hardly portable. The business end of the rig is a large ruby rod nestled inside a coiled xenon flash lamp, which in turn is contained within a polished reflector. The power supply for the lamp is massive — microwave oven transformers, a huge voltage multiplier, and a bank of capacitors that he says can store 20 kilojoules. When triggered by a high-voltage pulse from a 555 oscillator and an old car ignition coil, the laser outputs a powerful pulse of light, which [styropyro] uses to dramatic effect, including destroying his own optics. We’d love to hear more about the power supply design; that Cockcroft-Walton multiplier made from PVC tubes bears some exploration.
Whatever the details, the build is pretty impressive, but we do urge a few simple safety precautions. Perhaps a look at [Ben Krasnow]’s 8-kJ ruby laser would help.
Score one for the 555.
Good luck you mad lad.
He could have just used a…..
Oh.
Good job.
But can it play audio CD’s?
It can burn audio CDs.
It can burn through several audio CDs at once.
Cube sat to put a cd on the moon… maybe. Although compensation for air disturbances. Never mind.
Maybe taking down unwanted drones? Add a couple more banks of capacitors and increase the firing rate. Send it into a loop. Adjust to make the pulses overlay the gaps so it’s effectively a longer pulse for the duration of the loop. [ watch for time distortion as it creates drag and both the earth and the solar system are moving fairly quickly. ]
Perhaps pumping a larger laser?
Maybe spread the beam put it through a full sized lcd display and then focus it back again.
Display an image on the screen and instantly print it onto wood or plastic in the blink of your one remaining good eye.
Get a dozen of them, all pointing at the same spot in space. Fire them, and from the spot grows an enormous, even bigger laser. Mount it all on a small moon.
That’s not a moon!
That’s awesome.
When was in high school I attempted to build a nitrogen laser from an American scientific, but thankfully my electronics ability wasn’t good enough to get the high voltage power supply running.
I’ll have to have another go one day – I could do it now :-)
Wasn’t that Amateur Scientist? Easily could be wrong, long long time. Water aspirated low pressure nitrogen laser with a capacitor made of a 12″ x 12″ double sided pcb with gap on the top over which the chamber was built, charged to HV till spark gap on one side discharged cap creating a wavefront of potential difference at speed of light synchronized with the position of the lase pulse for amplification whole length of the tube. Didn’t get to finish it at school. School confiscated it moment did first hv test, everything was on track. Got it back weeks later well after science fair. Some weeks after that suspended 2 days when had a 90V battery in class to demonstrate just simple NE2 blinking ckt… teach wanted something “safer” than the HV and Dad guided, but friend bragged he could touch it to his tounge because it looked just like a giant 9v… and he could take it, did it lots of times. Snatched it outta my hand and tried. Backflip! GO HOME! That wasn’t a great year.
TEA lasers are fun.
Two metal engineering rulers sat on some tin foil and acetate plastic sheets to make a capacitor. Apply high voltage and point it at something fluorescent.
Be prepared for an hour of alignment and plenty of cursing though (:
I remember a detailed article in the April 1990 issue of Scientific American on how to build your very own pulsed laser. I tracked it down on nature.com, it was called: “A homemade copper chloride laser emits powerful bursts of green and yellow light” by Jearl Walker. As a kid, I remember being fascinated by that article and even trawling the local tip with a shopping list of discarded quartz heater tubes and lighting transformers… Helium and some of the chemicals involved would’ve been much more difficult to come by for a kid in the early 90s though. Still, on paper, this laser looks like an easy enough build!
Indeed copper chloride lasers seem fairly straightforward. No doubt mirror sourcing and alignment would be the tricky bit.
Actually if I remember from the article, the mirrors were just two glass slides covered in kitchen foil (one with a pinhole?). That’s how forgiving this build seems to have been. I can imagine that just about seeing it pulse some laser light in the dark would’ve been an achievement in itself back in them days. What was really fascinating to me (as a kid) was that, here’s a bunch of stuff other people have discarded, if you reassemble it just right, you get something very few other people get to play with at home. I don’t think we’ve really moved on from that 30 years on ;-)
ehhhh… wow! this is some impressive stuff, lost for words here.
The video is cool, but It needs more “I’ma firin’ mah lazor” before the shots
Next up a gas laser with some FUN chemicals.
This has been posted before, but it still is a classic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQwKe0lggw
And in the alternate universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usrk5HR1U4I
If I had Sharks i’d donate them.
Technically, he should be using a Gillette double-edged razor blade as a target. The joke back in the day was that laser power output ratings would be in micro-Gillettes.
No, they were in Gillettes, the number of razor blades it could burn through.
Now, pick up the pieces of your razor, go back to your bench, and get your Schick together!
B^)
My Wilkinson says otherwise… sir.
So is there a laser one can practically build at home to do cutting (yes, I know I could buy one from China off the shelf… where’s the fun in that?)
I got a nice ruby rod laying about and loads of optics and stuff. Also got a big yag and small yag too must get round to doing something with them. Not the best ruby laser I seen.Very out of focus for its shot and the big power bank is a overkill could make it a lot better but he does say it’s all made out of parts laying about. Just hope he don’t leave that power supply exposed for people to get to it. Needs a better setup that’s safe to others.
Super green?
Ruby laser is not very efficient, thus very big energies needed to excite ruby laser rod. So power bank must be that big if you want high pulse energies. The power setup it is simpliest by components, that not involves SMPS techniques. I think safety precautions must be admited by individual, not by the maker, who make most off all for show.
The most obscure thing that, as many solid state laser DIY makers on the internet use these lasers for shooting razor blades. Common.. Is there any real purpose than shooting “Gilletes”?
meteorite deflector.
MIRV generator.
we can use this for WW3