Little Junk Laser is a MEGAWATT Beast!

Episode 59 #photonics #Laser In this episode, a sub $30 dollar junk tattoo laser is torn right down, repaired and re-assembled into a bench-top instrument. During the repair, theory is covered, as well as some practical alignment techniques. A home made, high voltage power supply is constructed for it, generating 100 Joules for the flash-lamp. The final Solid State Q-switched nanosecond Neodymium:YAG Laser has megawatt level peak powers, capable of vaporising materials, generating plasma in the air, and frequency doubling to green. Power measurement is done using a Joule Meter, a fast picosecond risetime photodiode, and an oscilloscope, with some very surprising results! Check out my other videos: ​ Please don’t forget to like, subscribe and comment for more great content! If you found this content useful, and would like to support this Channel, please consider supporting this work on Patreon: Or donate directly: Alternatively, please share this content on your social media platforms, it really helps the channel! 0:00 Intro 0:43 Overview of the Laser 3:24 Diagram and explanation the Laser 5:11 Tear-down of the Cavity 5:22 Extracting the Xenon Flash Lamp and Laser Rod 5:52 Examining the Neodymium rod and Xenon Flash Lamp 6:40 Corrosion and gunk 8:07 All cleaned 9:02 Replacing the mirror mount 9:38 Mounting Base 10:20 Finished assembly 10:31 How to Align a Laser 11:15 Safety First! 11:43 Home made High voltage Power Supply 13:57 Laser connected 14:24 First Light and final alignment! 15:54 Q-Switching! 16:21 Laser induced breakdown 16:30 Frequency doubling! 16:43 Measuring the Laser Power 17:24 Analysis of the Laser output pulse 19:34 Pockels Cell 19:42 Future experiments 20:06 Credits