01E. Laser Information Resources

References on laser principles

1. The Laser Cookbook: 88 Practical Projects

Gordon McComb

TAB Books Inc, 1988.

Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214

2. Build your own Laser, Phaser, Ion Ray Gun & Other Working Space Age Projects

Robert E. Iannini

TAB Books, a division of McGraw Hill,

1983 Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214

ISBN 0-8306-0604-1 paperback

3. Build your own working Fiberoptic, Infrared, and Laser Space-Age Projects

Robert E. Iannini

TAB books, a division of McGraw-Hill, 1987

Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214

ISBN 0-8306-2724-3

This includes plans for a HeNe power supply as well as complete ruby/Nd-YAG and CO2 lasers and other interesting stuff.

4. Try the magazine Scientific American, the column Amateur Scientist, the time period 1960-1980.

5. Light and its Uses

(readings from Scientific American) C. L. Strong's 'The Amateur Scientist' with introductions by Jeral Walker.

W. H. Freeman And Co.

ISBN 0-7167-1184-2, ISBN 0-7167-1185-0 (pbk).

Info on how to build lasers and how to use them, as well as info on building laser instruments.

All of John Strong's (genius experimentalist) and Jeral Walkers columns on photonic devices are in this absolutely fabulous book.

The book describes the manufacture of several lasers by amateurs, form HeNe through CO2 and Dye types. Also, some Hologram and interferometer stuff. It is not for the absolute beginner but suitable for anyone who has some considerable hobbyist type experience with electronics and/or lasers.

6. Some older issues of Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics have articles on how to use HeNe lasers and power supplies for them (maybe 1980-1989).

7. Forrest Mims' Circuit Scrapbook II

Forrest Mims

Howard Sams & Co., 1987

This book is out of print but available at some libraries. It provides various driver circuits and a miniature laser + driver + battery built into a very small package.

Forrest Mims has also written a number of articles on how to use and build lasers.

8. The Laser Book - A New Technology of Light

Clifford L. Lawrence

Prentice Hall Press, 1986

A division of Simon and Schuster

New York, NY 10023

ISBN 0-13-523622-3

This book includes descriptions of many common lasers, construction, and applications.

9. Lasers and their Applications.

Kurt R. Stehling

The World Publishing Company, 1966

Cleveland and New York

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 66-18464

10. Introduction to Laser Physics

Bela A. Lengyel

John Wyley and Sons, Inc., 1966

New York, London, Sydney

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 65-27659

If you always wanted to really understand terms like population inversion, hyperfine transitions, and quantum efficiency, this old but solid book is for you. Be prepared for some heavy math. However, it does include some practical aspects of laser construction as well.

11. Wedding Lasers to Power Supplies

Photonics Spectra, June 1982

This is a nice article on general power supply considerations for HeNe and (small) CO2 lasers.

12. Another place you may try is "The Bell Jar" a newsletter on high vacuum amateur work it sometimes includes laser information. They have a WEB site: http://www.tiac.net/users/shansen/belljar/articles.htm.

13. Some of the earlier columns of "The laser Experimenter" (1995) went into detail on how to make light shows, and how to construct the power supplies for the HeNe type of lasers.

14. The March 1989 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine has plans for a HeNe power supply running on 12 VDC using a 555 timer chip and two transistors, a relay, and a 12 V to 280 V step-up transformer.

You may be able to find many of these items in a large public library. I think that the old issues of magazines are often on microfilm or microfiche.

Web resources

The following site will be jointly hosted by Ed Edmondson Jr. and myself:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/3931/

"Our mission here is to provide informtion about Lasers and Laser related equipment to the Amateur, Hobbyist, and Experimenter. Our site is the focal and collecting point of FREE information about these wonderful light emitting devices and their technology."

A current version of this document will always be present in some form at this site. The following have various information and links to other laser related sites:

* http://www.misty.com/~don/laserdon.html         (Don Klipstein's lighting center)

* http://www.rli.com/                                          (Lasernet homepage)

* http://www.rli.com/tutor1.html                          (Lasernet Laser tutorial)

* http://www.achilles.net/~jtalbot/history/            (History of lasers)

* http://www.rli.com/lazindex.html                       (Links to laser related sites)