Mankind has made the lion's share of inventions by observing natural processes and phenomena. But with the development of technology, developments based purely on theoretical research began to appear. These include the laser device, which during its existence has acquired a lot of varieties and modifications. In the household, this device can be useful as a rangefinder element, remote pointer, or part of a projector system. But how to make a home laser without having the production facilities and high-precision technologies? In fact, its basic device is quite simple, although some components will have to be taken from the finished equipment.
The device and principle of operation of a homemade laser
Traditionally it is believed that the working element - a kind of laser light source - is a ruby stone. But in order to optimize and reduce the cost of construction, even professional lasers are increasingly costingwithout this rod. More precisely, it is being replaced by alternative emitters, and not necessarily solid ones. In this case, you can use a solution with dyes. How to make a laser of this type yourself? You will need a lamp that will illuminate the mixture, emitting a beam of small thickness of the order of 5 mm. The design will also include an optical system for adjusting and focusing the light flux.
But that's not all. The laser will be activated by the light flash trigger. Its design will be formed by a combination of quartz glass elements, electrodes and a metal copper-steel base. The electrodes will need to be connected to the terminals of the capacitor, the capacitance of which should be about 15 microfarads with a charge potential of 3 kW. As the pressure drops to the required value, the capacitor will be discharged and a laser flash will occur.
Device base
The main element of a homemade laser is an amplifier tube. As already mentioned, quartz glass with a diameter of up to 5 mm will be used in this capacity. At the ends of the tube, it is necessary to provide covers with flat windows - also made of quartz. The device is placed between two mirrors, forming the center of the optical system. Now another question - how to make a laser organically supplemented with a trigger? For it, another quartz tube is used, which should be placed parallel to the first one. Both cylinders must be installed in a reflective elliptical mirror.
Bouncing off an elliptical shaped mirror, the flash of the trigger will provide concentrationbeam on the amplifying tube. For this circuit to work, it is important to correctly place the amplifier with the trigger at the reflector foci. It is recommended to use aluminum or silver coated mirrors. Their diameter should be approximately 10 mm. In the process of radiation, one of the mirrors will provide a total reflection of light, and the second - a little more than half of the flux. The beam segment that will pass through the second mirror will form a laser beam.
Reflector device
The function of the reflector will be performed by a thin-walled aluminum tube with a diameter of 2.5 and a length of 8 cm. It is important that its inner surfaces are carefully polished. Further, already as a blank element, the tube must be carefully deformed so that its cross section takes the form of an ellipse. How to make a laser with your own hands with such a reflector? You can correct the shape in a vice, and it is recommended to fix the reflector with a small metal clamp. The major axis of the part must be set parallel to the plane of the base. In the future, the trigger and amplifier will be integrated into ellipse foci with a gap of about 12 mm. Moreover, the axes of the tubes must exactly coincide with the foci of the aluminum reflector. It is necessary to calculate in advance the possibilities of arranging cells or grooves for fixing flat mirrors, as well as their adjustment. To ensure the possibility of adjusting the angle of contact of the mirror with the beam, it would be useful to provide mounting hardware with springs.
Mirror device
Translucent mirrors are directed with the coated surface facing the first quartz amplifier tube. The problem can arise only in the manufacture of mirror elements with the desired characteristics. How to make a laser at home based on a silver-plated mirror? Initially, a glass plate is taken, the surface of which is carefully degreased. One side of the product is covered with nitro paint, after which a silvering reaction is carried out. And at this stage it is important to take into account one nuance. Traditional silvering leads to the fact that the surface is completely covered with a tinted layer. In this case, this should be avoided, since the mirror should be translucent. The degree of coverage is determined by the delay time of the workpiece in the prepared reaction solution of silver. As a rule, the optimal interval is derived experimentally, as much will depend on individual process factors.
Dyes for laser
The device can use several dyes, but for the first time when creating the simplest design, you can limit yourself to rhodamine. This is an orange paint that will cover the spectrum from yellow-green to red. Methyl alcohol will help prepare the rhodamine solution. Approximately 45 mg of rhodamine is diluted with it in a small container. How to make a laser with other shades of the beam? According to the same scheme, a suitable mixture is made by diluting dyes with methyl alcohol. For example, a blue beam is obtained from diethylaminomethyl-coumarin, and sodium fluoresceingives a poisonous-salad shade. The finished dye solution must flow through the booster tube at a rate of at least 4 l/h.
Setting up and preparing the laser for work
After the laser is ready, you need to set it up. Actually, only one parameter is regulated - the angle between the mirrors and the tube. For the device to work, the reflection plane must be oriented perpendicular to the amplifier and parallel to the mirror in the opposite focus cell. You should also take care of the power supply of the device. How to make a laser so that it works as long as possible offline? To do this, you need to mount a special block with a power supply element for the trigger. The system will work through a capacitor and wiring with a minimum level of resistance. As practice shows, the bus with copper conductors with a cross section of 10x1 mm becomes the best option for a power supply line.
How to make a powerful laser?
High-performance laser devices up to 300 mW can be made even on the basis of a conventional disk drive. It will require 100 mF and 100 pF capacitors, LED lamps, resistors and a DVD-RW drive directly, the recording speed of which is at least 16x. AAA batteries will be responsible for power. How to make a laser from a disk drive? All working equipment will be based on a driver - an electrical board, to which components will need to be soldered. A special diode must be used as a laser source, but it cannot be directly connected to the power supply system. SuchDiodes are powered by current, not voltage. A collimator is also included in the system. This is a kind of optical module that will perform the function of a thin beam converter.
Conclusion
As useful as laser devices are, they should only be used when absolutely necessary, as they are technically and electrochemically unsafe. How to make a laser with the safest possible working base? Actually, the described method of manufacturing the device on dyes is the least dangerous from the point of view of harmful radiation due to low power. But even in this case, you can increase its security by integrating additional protective filters. At a minimum, this solution will protect the eyes of the user and those who will be in the area of application of the device.
