What's a Green Neon Lamp?

[Chuck Harris]

Hi Watson,

Most of the early HeNe lasers were really bad leakers. The mirrors
used were quite delicate, so the manufacturers would use a special
"high torr" epoxy to glue them onto the glass capillary tube. The
epoxy couldn't keep the He in. On many of these tubes, they put a
big gas reservoir as part of the tube to extend working life.

The best HeNe lasers use steel tubes, and the windows are soldered in
using an indium solder. They will last virtually forever.

-Chuck Harris

Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover wrote:

In article <400d3052$0$15628$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>,

Neon, on the other hand, is a big plump atom, and cannot pass through
the tiny intermolecular spaces in normal glass.


Just what I like: big, plump atoms! My favorite is oxygen..

I've heard that helium at cryo temperatures creeps out of the vessel,
so it's a strange beast. But I didn't know about the HeNe laser
leaking. A friend of mine in high school wanted to make a HeNe laser
so bad he had the tubes blown out of glass and was working on getting
the brewster windows. But his mom was cleaning his bedroom and
smashed the glass. :-( Jeez, that was back when the only lasers were
HeNe, like the mid '60s, maybe. Lasers had been around only a few
years.


-Chuck Harris

 

[Robert Casey]

Ya know, this is Deja Vu all over again. I've bought stuff in that
store before and had bought bad parts, one would think that I would've
learned my lesson by now. The crap is bad! Don't buy it! But no, I
did it again. I seldom go to that store, so I guess I've developed an
aversion to it. After you've stuck your hand in the fire, you kind of
develop an aversion to getting burned again. But no, I got burned
again.

Reminds me of that mail order house "Poly Paks". Pure junk. I don't

think they
exist anymore.

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <400F4393.8090807@ix.netcom.com>, wa2ise@ix.netcom.com
mentioned...

Ya know, this is Deja Vu all over again. I've bought stuff in that
store before and had bought bad parts, one would think that I would've
learned my lesson by now. The crap is bad! Don't buy it! But no, I
did it again. I seldom go to that store, so I guess I've developed an
aversion to it. After you've stuck your hand in the fire, you kind of
develop an aversion to getting burned again. But no, I got burned
again.

Reminds me of that mail order house "Poly Paks". Pure junk. I don't
think they
exist anymore.

Yeah, I remember those ads in the back of every issue of the
electronics magazines. I never did get suckered into those. I think
it was because there were a couple local electronics shops that
attracted me instead. And I didn't have any money to begin with. But
I think I learned my lesson about mail order when I started collecting
stamps with those "stamp approval" mail order services. They would
send me those packages of junk stamps and bill if the packages weren't
sent back in time. Finally the U.S. Postal Service put an end to
those 'approval' operations when they passed a law that said, "If you
receive something in the mail that you did not request, it's yours to
keep, free". They should make a lot more laws like that!


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[Oppie]

Don - You seem to have more experience with this. I gladly defer to your
explanation.

Regards - Oppie

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For correct response address, remove -nospam-
=========
"Don Klipstein" <don@manx.misty.com> wrote in message
news:slrnc0rftf.ho0.don@manx.misty.com...

Argon does not make significant amounts of that kind of UV... I think
it's a mixture with krypton or xenon. The krypton or xenon is a minority
ingredient in the mixture but that's the way it works best for producing
shortwave UV. The krypton or xenon (xenon works better) is usually mixed
with neon but I have seen argon used for that purpose.
It is easy for the neon-xenon mixture to glow with an argon-like color.

You will have to examine a spectrum of the glow to know what is actually
in there. Been there, done that.

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 01:12:24 +0000 (UTC), the renowned
don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein) wrote:

In article <400F4393.8090807@ix.netcom.com>, Robert Casey wrote:

Reminds me of that mail order house "Poly Paks". Pure junk. I don't
think they exist anymore.

I think they went out of business quite a few years ago.

I only bought from them once. This was for GaAs infrared laser diodes
with output of a few watts. The magazine ad did not say that this was
peak output and that the duty cycle had to be so low that average output
was only a few milliwatts, although the datasheet that came with the
diodes did say that. I returned the laser diodes.

In their time, I think Poly Paks was probably higher quality on
average than Radio Shack (being mostly surplus), though both had
dubious fallout products on offer. Armaco (Russ Mack, IIRC)) in BC was
another early supplier of oddball stuff- brought in all kinds of weird
and wonderful Japanese stuff so you wouldn't

It turns out that the low duty cycle and low average power of such GaAs
laser diodes was fairly common knowledge - but not obvious to one who
first hears about them in an ad when first starting to read electronics
magazines.

Yes, I remember that. CW lasers (even IR) were quite an achievement in
their time. What were the pulsed ones used for? Can't remember..

This was about 20 years ago. I haven't seen hobbyist/surplus outfits
selling GaAs laser diodes for quite a few years now.

What would a hobbyist do with them? They are free in every junked CD
player, of course. And the low-end versions of the visible red ones
are very, very cheap in laser pointers. Blue laser pointers will be
cool, when they arrive, for a few months. Last I looked ( a couple of
years ago) the green ones were still $200+ US each- okay, they are $90
now and use a Sony green laser diode rather than an IR laser and a
frequency doubler (much like the optical version of a varactor, eh?).

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Don Klipstein]

In article <400F4393.8090807@ix.netcom.com>, Robert Casey wrote:

Reminds me of that mail order house "Poly Paks". Pure junk. I don't
think they exist anymore.

I think they went out of business quite a few years ago.

I only bought from them once. This was for GaAs infrared laser diodes
with output of a few watts. The magazine ad did not say that this was
peak output and that the duty cycle had to be so low that average output
was only a few milliwatts, although the datasheet that came with the
diodes did say that. I returned the laser diodes.
It turns out that the low duty cycle and low average power of such GaAs
laser diodes was fairly common knowledge - but not obvious to one who
first hears about them in an ad when first starting to read electronics
magazines.

This was about 20 years ago. I haven't seen hobbyist/surplus outfits
selling GaAs laser diodes for quite a few years now.

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)