A Working Design?
Ron
was a design for a laser as I have never actually seen it done
anywhere. Supposedly, it was a sliver or piece of cadmium sulfide
placed where an electron bea could hit it, though the CdS was placed
on the outside of the electron gun. Not sure if the sliver had the
conventional mirrors or not.
For a while I thought about making such a "laser." I had an electron
gun made at a local glass place but at the time I had neither a proper
power supply or a source of CdS, and eventually I lost both the
electron gun and interest in the project.
Now, many oons later, I am really curious to know if 1) an actual
laser could be made that way, 2) what kind of power output would it
have, and 3) if this was a viable laser design, why haven't I seen
anything like it anywhere?
Ron
STEVE ROBERTS
late 90s.
You need several coatings on the CdS, one to bleed the electrons off,
one as a high reflector on the backside and a OC coating.
US pat # 7309953.
Katsap et al., CdSxSel-x/ CdS Heterostructures in Longitudinally
Electron-Beam-Pumped Lasers, Sov. J. Quantum Electronics 17(10) pp.
1272-1274 (Oct. 1987).
Kotovshchikov et al., Sealed Scanned Electron-Beam-Excited
Semiconductor Laser, Sov. J. Quantum Electronics 4(2) pp. 242-243
(Aug. 1974).
Kozlovskii et al., Characteristics of CdS Laser Screen Radiation at
300 degrees K, Sov. J. Quantum Electronics 11(11) p. 1522-1526 (Nov.
1981).
Sadchikhin, et al., Electron-Beam Pumped Semiconductor Lasers for
Projection to Large Screens, ASIA Display 98, pp. 717-719 (circa
1998).
Good Luck, Steve Roberts
Ron
Hmmm, a patent is one thing but does the design even work? Does such
a laser produce any more power than a laser pointer? At the time, I
had thought that I could have made a laser gun like in space; 1999,
but it would have been really disappointing if I could have put it
all together and got nothing more powerful than a flashlight beam or
a yellow LED, lol.
Ron
Richard Budd
When are folks going to think things through and realize that as a general rule
laser power out is limited by efficiency, cooling and what size power plant you
can carry. Man-portable lasers that can be fired for more than a few minutes and
do more than blind or give someone a nasty burn ain't gonna happen for several
decades or longer. Until someone develops a very small power source that can
provide several hundred kWHr's between refits and a laser source with better
than 99% efficiency, it-just-won't-work.
TTFN!
STEVE ROBERTS
Steve Roberts
STEVE ROBERTS
general rule
laser power out is limited by efficiency, cooling and what size power
plant you
Agreed, Its annoying to think that most people do not realize that
energy density is always a limiting factor.
Says wonders for the science education in the US. Although the
origional poster was probably thinking what a cool scaning method that
would be, which it is. The russians obtained roughly 10 watts,
although that is a massive e- gun.
Steve Roberts
Ron
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hey, I don't intend to kill anyone, but don't you think the idea is
pretty neat? <g>
I grew up in the 60s looking at shows like Lost In Space, Star Trek,
and Space: 1999-- so there were a few things that I thought were real
cool and I always wanted. But a tricorder is still a few decades away
until someone can make better sensors, Spock's Vulcan harp I'm working
on and I will get that finished sooner or later, and I can pretty much
dream about the laser gun.
Like I said, I have no desire to either hurt or kill anyone, but to
make something hand-held that could at least pop a balloon or put a
hole in a razor blade is a whole lot better than having a plastic
phaser prop that makes a beeping noise, innit? :-)
Ron
Ron
Maybe I don't have to dream about that laser gun after all-- blessings
on Google:
http://lifehacker.com/software/diy/turn-a-flashlight-into-a-handheld-burning-laser-287252.php
Ron
Lostgallifreyan
news:d4vBj.97$qS5...@nlpi069.nbdc.sbc.com:
> or
>> a yellow LED, lol
I totally concur, yellow LED's are the WORST! >:)
Lostgallifreyan
2130ce...@13g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
> Spock's Vulcan harp
I'm hoping for Samuel Delany's 'Sensory Syrinx', but I won't hold my breath.
Maybe the NECSEL lasers could nudge it a tad closer to realisation. Bass
sound formed by interacting HF might help too. Not much we can do for the
sense of smell yet though.
Richard Budd
At that low end of power, you can easily do that today. Most who post 'laser
gun' questions here seem to be thinking along the line of as-seen-in-movies
capabilities.
A 10w NIR laser diode with a decent little collimator/far-focus assy and battery
pack should do balloon popping up to a few feet away or more and be about the
size of the original Lost in Space laser pistols. Probably only be able to fire
for a few minutes before the batteries die but doable. If you want a little
more, probably one of those mil-surplus rangefinder YAG's seen all over E-bay
might work for at least making sparks and putting a pit on a razor blade. Being
pretty hungry,a belt battery pack is a must.
Just be careful of reflections and putting someones eye out!
TTFN!
Ron
> Go to the website of the folks who have the patent. Hint Hint
>
> Steve Roberts
Much to my surprise, I found the book: Semiconductor Diode Lasers by
Ralph W. Campbell and Foirrest M. Mims III. It was printed all the way
back in 1972 and says that it was originally RCA that pioneered the
electron beam pumped CdS laser but the Russians ran with it, getting
as uch as 200 megawatts peak power with sufficient pumping.
However, J.L. Brewster got 400 kiolwatts at room temperature from an
EB pumped CdS laser back in 1968. But I had missed the part about
those lasers being pulsed. Even if I had tried to pursue something
like that, back in '73 or '74,
my electronic skills wasn't up to making a pulsed power supply heh heh
(I was only 17 yrs-old around then). Oh, well... ;-)
Ron
Ron
> Ron <r...@quik.com> wrote in news:df9b801b-b920-4387-aac7-
> 2130ce476...@13g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>
> > Spock's Vulcan harp
>
> I'm hoping for Samuel Delany's 'Sensory Syrinx', but I won't hold my breath.
> Maybe the NECSEL lasers could nudge it a tad closer to realisation. Bass
> sound formed by interacting HF might help too. Not much we can do for the
> sense of smell yet though.
Can't hep ya there, but there *are* plans (sort of) for the Vulcan
harp on the 'Net, thanks to me. I woke up one morning, fifty, and I
wanted a Vulcan harp for my half-century birthday. But you can't buy
them and the ones made back in the day are as scarce as hens teeth.
One sold on ebay a while back for a whopping $2,500.00-- not cheap.
I had heard somewhere that somebody had made a booklet containing the
plans and templates for making a Vulcan harp-- but nobody seemed to
know anything about this. So literally for months I asked around
until I found soebody who had a copy of that ultra-rare booklet. He
said he would post it at his website:
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/vulcan-harp-construction-plans.php
So I waited. And waited. And waited! Two months or more had gone by
while I waited with superhuman patience, but when it looked like I was
never gonna see the plans, I made a few comments here and there that
got back to guy with the plans and he got it into gear and posted the
plans! Yay! Then I saw them and I went fro elation to despair as the
"plans" had no dimensions and damn few details. And those templates--
they are there if you had the actual 24" x 36" booklet; if you have
downloaded the plans the "templates" -- a page where the pieces have
to be cut out to be the cutting guide for cheap 2x4's-- wouldn't be to
scale; not that it said anywhere just what size the harp should
actually be...
I only found out by accident that soe of the harps were 40" x 17" and
that helped to provide soe sense of scale. I blew up the 8" x 11"
plans by roughly 430 per cent and soe things began to coe together.
But even with teplates roughly to scale, aking a Vulcan harp is no
walk in the park! There are hidden difficulties that a skilled luthier
might easily get around but an amateur with little experience in
cutting and working with wood can have a real hard time. But it can
be made, yes sireeee. :-)
Ron
Pat B.
Ron...ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR VULCAN MIND????? get a blond and a corvette
instead :)
Ron
Yes, usually...
But I've had a blonde or two (one of the was tall and spectacular,
too). Trust me: those come and go, while Vulcan harps are rare,
valuable, and like a Stradivarius, very hard to come by.
Ron
Ron
>
>
> A 10w NIR laser diode with a decent little collimator/far-focus assy and battery
> pack should do balloon popping up to a few feet away or more and be about the
> size of the original Lost in Space laser pistols.
I just found out that a cheap DVD burner can produce a nifty diode for
less than $50; less than $30 with careful shopping. I always thought
the laser pistols on LIS were pretty cool, and find it ironic that
that show was set in 1997 and yet our laser technology is still not
quite there yet.
Space: 1999 went a bit further in that those laser pistols had four or
five emitters, but I think they were designed for very short-range
use-- obviously in a confined space ya wouldn't want a stray beam to
put a hole in a pressurized area. A fascinating design, but no way to
collimate those four or five beams into anything really powerful. :-)
Ron
Richard Budd
To some extent, the laser technology is close in that you can buy a 10kw diode
laser head about the size of a football from Rofin-Sinar. Mount it on a
rifle-looking rail and add focusing optics and you have a weapon that can and
will do serious damage. Not exactly lethal (unless you're very determined...)but
definitely very dangerous. Burning through rock (slowly) is not out of the question.
Now, where to put that 60kw power supply and chiller....
Ouroboros_Rex
"Ron" <ry...@quik.com> wrote in message
news:3026aa50-3b05-4ef2...@m34g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
http://lifehacker.com/software/diy/turn-a-flashlight-into-a-handheld-burning-laser-287252.php
Yep. And http://stonetek.org/shop/ will sell you fresh diodes already
mounted in the housings (choose that option).
Then,
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forumdata/yabbfiles/Attachments/FINAL_jpg.jpg
Ron
> "Ron" <r...@quik.com> wrote in message
>
> Yep. And http://stonetek.org/shop/ will sell you fresh diodes already
> mounted in the housings (choose that option).
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
Gee, if those are only the commercial diodes I'd love to see what
the military and intelligence comunities have hidden away! That would
be so cool if there was some real-life version of "Q" actually making
watches with lasers in them like in Die Another Day-- although
personally I preferred Bond's watch in Live And Let Die that had the
powerful electro-magnet in it. :-)
Ron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_gadgets
DougD
>Gee, if those are only the commercial diodes I'd love to see what
>the military and intelligence comunities have hidden away! That would
>be so cool if there was some real-life version of "Q" actually making
>watches with lasers in them like in Die Another Day-- although
>personally I preferred Bond's watch in Live And Let Die that had the
>powerful electro-magnet in it. :-)
Well, I'm still waiting for Sharks with Friggin' Lasers on them! I want
one for each of my two moats, Bwahahahahah......hmmmm...
d.
Lostgallifreyan
> Well, I'm still waiting for Sharks with Friggin' Lasers on them! I want
> one for each of my two moats, Bwahahahahah......hmmmm...
>
All good things come to those who wait. So moat it be. >:)
Ron
I don't sippose that anything will live up to the dream of pistols
capable of sustained 100 kW discharge for twenty minutes or a rifle
capable of a twenty minute 500 kW sustained discharge-- at least for a
good while-- but I was skimming Sam's FAQ on diode pumped lasers and
those seem to have the most potential in this area; at least as
aportable design-- I know that cheical lasers and CO2 lasers could be
used, but those aren't something easily slung over a shoulder.
And despite the above figures being bandied about, I had never seen
any of the Robinson's weapons ever really killed anything. I think
it hurt some one-eyed giant creature once, but unless my memory fails
me (which is likely these days) those guns never seemed very lethal
although they were effective at destroying alien gizmos when the need
arose. <g>
Ron
Ron
> Ron <r...@quik.com> wrote innews:df9b801b-b920-4387...@13g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>
> <snip>
>
> > cool and I always wanted. But a tricorder is still a few decades away
> > until someone can make better sensors,
> > Ron
>
> I just read an article in a science magazine that explains how a new type
> of magnetometer works. It's tiny, about 5mm on a side, and super
> sensitive. The researchers commented that it should make portable MRIs a
> reality very soon. Perhaps a handheld MRI isn't too far off. Not exactly
> a tricorder, but closer than a few decades!
Right now we are sooooo close to the tricorder: we have video cameras/
recorders that are small enoughand computer CPUs on a chip of immense
processing power-- but if we could get a good dozen sensors (light,
heat, mositure, RF, magnetic, etc) we would need somebody with both
the knowledge and the craziness to combine them all. I have the
craziness, but not the skills, heh heh. ;-)
Ron
Ron
> Ron <r...@quik.com> wrote innews:4dd9c5d8-18ca-4d7f...@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Mar 15, 6:10 am, shiver <shiver@.com> wrote:
> >> Ron <r...@quik.com> wrote
> > 000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>
> >> <snip>
>
> >> > cool and I always wanted. But a tricorder is still a few decades
> >> > away until someone can make better sensors,
> >> <snip>
> >> > Ron
>
> >> I just read an article in a science magazine that explains how a new
> >> type of magnetometer works. It's tiny, about 5mm on a side, and
> >> super sensitive. The researchers commented that it should make
> >> portable MRIs
> > a
> >> reality very soon. Perhaps a handheld MRI isn't too far off. Not
> >> exa
> > ctly
> >> a tricorder, but closer than a few decades!
>
> > Right now we are sooooo close to the tricorder: we have video cameras/
> > recorders that are small enoughand computer CPUs on a chip of immense
> > processing power-- but if we could get a good dozen sensors (light,
> > heat, mositure, RF, magnetic, etc) we would need somebody with both
> > the knowledge and the craziness to combine them all. I have the
> > craziness, but not the skills, heh heh. ;-)
>
> > Ron
>
> of sensors has a use? It would need a justification for emitting that
> little sound a tricorder makes, too. Audible sonar?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
The medical tricorder should be obvious-- and it's the rotating
scanner head that causes the whirrling noise. But a general tricorder
would be useful in any kind of exploration whether it's deep space or
somewhere in darkest Africa or Antartica. where scientific
measureents need to be made or records of them to be kept. Even in
research labs, instead of entering data in laptops, the tricorder
could keep running records that could be played back whenever someone
needs the information.
Also, with one sensor platform it would be possible to reduce the need
for multiple instruentation in any given experiment; or less esoteric
uses would be for cops to find out how any people [hidden] in a house
through a heat sensor (which is actually being done in some places),
exterminators could see how many rats there were, or think what a car
echanic could do with an electrical sensor tied to a computerized
database-- no big challenge to put such 411 on an EPROM or keep it in
teporary storage on a floppy or micro CD/DVD. The potential uses are
-- no pun intended (much) -- astronomical. soebody, or some company
that could make a reasonably functional tricorder could make a
tremendous profit. Sigh... ;-)
Ron
Ron
>
> Clearly, a tricorder would require a laser to point at things, (for
> temperature sensing) as well as for conducting chemical analysis. :)
Hmmm, I don't know about that... However, it would need at least one
laser to burn the recorded data onto a CD-- or even a mini DVD disk--
for safe keeping and replay purposes. In the original series, the
tricorder carried a supply of disks for data storage, but in the newer
shows like Star Trek: Next Gen, they got rid of that useful feature; I
guess it made the units sleeker looking without the video screen and
data storage disks but it also decreased the functionality of the
tricorders as well.
Ron