The SSY1 laser was used as a range-finder laser on an M1 tank as I understand.
“Continue reading” for more details.
It is interesting in that it has a passive Q switch. This one is simple with leads for the flash and trigger. It runs from a capacitor 32 uF 600 V with a 0.03 mH inductor as a pulse-forming network. The SSY1 lasers were quite common on the hobby market. Lots of information on Sam’s laser FAQ SSY1.
It is a Nd:YAG laser which puts out an infra-red pulse at 1064 nm with an output energy of 10-50 mJ. This is about one thickness of aluminium foil but enthusiasts over driving these have punched through a razor blade. Air ionisation is possible too.
The laser is mounted with an aiming red diode laser on the right. The holes were made in the black plastic by the laser. Sadly the flashlamp is now blown. I have a new one but it may take a bit to mount it.
CO2 head 350 W 2005 (new, but not working – needs power supply)
This eBay laser was hiding under laser printers! It is a new head for a class IV CO2 marking laser used to make high speed barcodes and product information on a production line. It has acoustic-optical control to manipulate the beam non mechanically. Rating is 350 W peak and 100W continuous. It is water cooled and is RF excited so it will be a bit trickier to get going. I hope that I will be able to drive it by a spark gap and tuned circuit to the appropriate frequency. Quick and dirty but high power and not that dissimilar to Tesla tuned circuits. I will need to get info on it before I plan further. Like all CO2 lasers it functions in the far infrared at 9.1 – 11.2 microns. Compare this with the HeNe red wavelength of 0.640 microns or the Nd:YAG wavelength of 1.064 microns.
Related pages
External links
Try something else
Photo Date: Aug 30, 2006