Coherent Chameleon laser lifetime

[Arvydas Matiukas]

Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally

used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system

recently began performing unstably, sometimes even

not getting "modelocked".

 

The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.

However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals

may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k

with one more year warranty.

 

I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options

and laser lifetime.

 

Thanks,

Arvydas

*************

 

 

 

 

Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
Department of Pharmacology
SUNY Upstate Medical University
766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
Syracuse, NY 13210
tel.: [phone]
fax: [phone]
email: [hidden email]

[Craig Brideau]

If you've only put 1000 hours on it, I doubt its your crystals unless your laser is in a very 'dirty' environment; dust in the cavity and the like.  There's supposed to be a filtered air purge though to keep particles out of the laser to prevent this.
It's possible there is a bad coating on an optic somewhere that has failed, the green pump laser may be going, or one of any of a number of things could be wrong.  My advise to you would be to have the laser thoroughly checked over before you start buying replacement parts.

Craig
 

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 4:11 PM, Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]> wrote:

Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally

used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system

recently began performing unstably, sometimes even

not getting "modelocked".

 

The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.

However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals

may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k

with one more year warranty.

 

I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options

and laser lifetime.

 

Thanks,

Arvydas

*************

 

 

 

 

Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
Department of Pharmacology
SUNY Upstate Medical University
766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
Syracuse, NY 13210
tel.: [phone]
fax: [phone]
email: [hidden email]

[Haberman, Ann]

Hi Arvydas,

Have you recently adjusting any components within the microscope? Laser feedback into the laser cavity can cause this as well.

Ann Haberman

>Content-type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-description: HTML
>
>Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally
>used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system
>recently began performing unstably, sometimes even
>not getting "modelocked".
>
>The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.
>However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals
>may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k
>with one more year warranty.
>
>I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options
>and laser lifetime.
>
>Thanks,
>Arvydas
>*************
>
>
>
>
>Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
>Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
>Department of Pharmacology
>SUNY Upstate Medical University
>766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
>Syracuse, NY 13210
>tel.: [phone]
>fax: [phone]
>email: [hidden email]

--

Ann Haberman, PhD
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
1 Gilbert  St.
TAC S541
New Haven, CT 06510

203-785-7349
203-785-5415 (fax)
[hidden email]

[Csúcs Gábor]

Dear Arvydas,

Unfortunately I have no good advice, just an own experience: The same
thing happened to us, our laser had even less then 1000 hours, was only
2.5 years old and was not in a dirty environment. The repair cost 40.000
USD.

Cheers   Gabor

[Scientist Two Photon Spectroscopy]

Hi all,
I have the same experience with both of our chameleon lasers. After a period
of time the laser don´t modelock anymore. You can try to smash with your
hand on the case to cause the hard aperture to vibrate. It will modelock
again. But it only works for three weeks. After than you can pay 40.000 $
for a repair. The laser will have than the half of lifetime before again.
This is very disappointing. I also did not get a detailed repair
description, only "Reapir : xxx$" I guess the repair shop did not know the
reason for the modelocking problems either. In my view the cavity design
especially the control of the piezo mirrors is the main cause for the
modelocking problems. It is not stable at all, especially when it shipped in
fragile wooden box all over the world.

Now we are using fs-lasers from another manufacturer.

I hope you are not so disappointed at all. The lasers are susceptible to
failure. You have to take it into account.

Regards,
Bill

[LANCE RODENKIRCH]

Hi  Arvydas,

I would check my baseplate temperature.  Main menu/Pump laser menu/verdi laser status/baseplate temp.  The baseplate should be 33 C.  Are you using the original Thermotek pump that was shipped with the unit?
Coherent advises to change the chiller water monthly. Can you achieve modelock by doing a pzt recovery?  Main menu/chameleon status/PZT recovery.  

If this is a temperature problem, you should get error codes number 44 and 50 on the front interface.  I have 6K hours on a 5 year old Chameleon but I have been having similar issues since July.  To other Chameleon operators out there, how often are they doing PZT recoveries?

It would be best to start the laser at a known calibration point such as
800nm and then tune to the desired wavelength.  A standard Chameleon has
23 calibrated points across the tuning range.
The system will first attempt to modelock at the desired wavelength.
Should it not modelock on the first try, it will tune to the next
closest calibrated point, modelock, then tune back to the desired
wavelength so that a modelock pulse is obtained.


Lance Rodenkirch
W.M Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
1300 University Ave Rm 172 MSC
Madison, WI  53706
http://www.keck.bioimaging.wisc.edu/
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

----- Original Message -----
From: Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:12 pm
Subject: Coherent Chameleon laser lifetime
To: [hidden email]

> Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally
>  used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system
>  recently began performing unstably, sometimes even
>  not getting "modelocked".
>  
>  The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.
>  However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals
>  may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k
>  with one more year warranty.
>  
>  I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options
>  and laser lifetime.
>  
>  Thanks,
>  Arvydas
>  *************
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
>  Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
>  Department of Pharmacology
>  SUNY Upstate Medical University
>  766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
>  Syracuse, NY 13210
>  tel.: [phone]
>  fax: [phone]
>  email: [hidden email]
>  

[G. Esteban Fernandez]

We had modelock problems for some time but the laser has been very reliable (or at least predictable) since we've been setting the chiller temp. to 27°C at start-up.  This is higher than the what the laser should be operating at and may give a diode overcurrent fault, so we only use that temp. for start-up.  Once it modelocks we turn the chiller back down to 23°C.  Of course it doesn't like the temp. change but it seems less harsh than smashing it with your hand :)  Contact me off-list for the dirty details of how we keep modelock without having to spend $40k.

 

-Esteban

 

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:37 PM, LANCE RODENKIRCH <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi  Arvydas,

I would check my baseplate temperature.  Main menu/Pump laser menu/verdi laser status/baseplate temp.  The baseplate should be 33 C.  Are you using the original Thermotek pump that was shipped with the unit?
Coherent advises to change the chiller water monthly. Can you achieve modelock by doing a pzt recovery?  Main menu/chameleon status/PZT recovery.

If this is a temperature problem, you should get error codes number 44 and 50 on the front interface.  I have 6K hours on a 5 year old Chameleon but I have been having similar issues since July.  To other Chameleon operators out there, how often are they doing PZT recoveries?

It would be best to start the laser at a known calibration point such as
800nm and then tune to the desired wavelength.  A standard Chameleon has
23 calibrated points across the tuning range.
The system will first attempt to modelock at the desired wavelength.
Should it not modelock on the first try, it will tune to the next
closest calibrated point, modelock, then tune back to the desired
wavelength so that a modelock pulse is obtained.


Lance Rodenkirch
W.M Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
1300 University Ave Rm 172 MSC
Madison, WI  53706
http://www.keck.bioimaging.wisc.edu/
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

----- Original Message -----
From: Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:12 pm
Subject: Coherent Chameleon laser lifetime
To: [hidden email]


> Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally
>  used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system
>  recently began performing unstably, sometimes even
>  not getting "modelocked".
>
>  The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.
>  However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals
>  may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k
>  with one more year warranty.
>
>  I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options
>  and laser lifetime.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Arvydas
>  *************
>
>
>
>
>  Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
>  Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
>  Department of Pharmacology
>  SUNY Upstate Medical University
>  766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
>  Syracuse, NY 13210
>  tel.: [phone]
>  fax: [phone]
>  email: [hidden email]
>

--
G. Esteban Fernandez, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Molecular Cytology Core Facility
University of Missouri
120 Bond Life Sciences Center
Columbia, MO  65211

http://www.biotech.missouri.edu/mcc/

573-882-4895
573-884-9395 fax

[Arvydas Matiukas]

Hi all,

 

thanks for the suggestions: after checking/setting  chiller/baseplate temperatures our Chameleon laser

again is stable as usual.

 

Actually Chameleon manual states that proper temperature settings are important, and now based on my own experience

I can confirm that they are REALLY important. Fortunately the laser performance has nothing

to do with crystal degradation as follows from the replies and my enquiries to Ti:Sa laser owners.

 

Arvydas

 

>>> "G. Esteban Fernandez" <[hidden email]> 11/13/2008 12:56 PM >>>

We had modelock problems for some time but the laser has been very reliable (or at least predictable) since we've been setting the chiller temp. to 27°C at start-up.  This is higher than the what the laser should be operating at and may give a diode overcurrent fault, so we only use that temp. for start-up.  Once it modelocks we turn the chiller back down to 23°C.  Of course it doesn't like the temp. change but it seems less harsh than smashing it with your hand :)  Contact me off-list for the dirty details of how we keep modelock without having to spend $40k.

 

-Esteban

 

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:37 PM, LANCE RODENKIRCH <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi  Arvydas,

I would check my baseplate temperature.  Main menu/Pump laser menu/verdi laser status/baseplate temp.  The baseplate should be 33 C.  Are you using the original Thermotek pump that was shipped with the unit?
Coherent advises to change the chiller water monthly. Can you achieve modelock by doing a pzt recovery?  Main menu/chameleon status/PZT recovery.

If this is a temperature problem, you should get error codes number 44 and 50 on the front interface.  I have 6K hours on a 5 year old Chameleon but I have been having similar issues since July.  To other Chameleon operators out there, how often are they doing PZT recoveries?

It would be best to start the laser at a known calibration point such as
800nm and then tune to the desired wavelength.  A standard Chameleon has
23 calibrated points across the tuning range.
The system will first attempt to modelock at the desired wavelength.
Should it not modelock on the first try, it will tune to the next
closest calibrated point, modelock, then tune back to the desired
wavelength so that a modelock pulse is obtained.


Lance Rodenkirch
W.M Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
1300 University Ave Rm 172 MSC
Madison, WI  53706
http://www.keck.bioimaging.wisc.edu/
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

----- Original Message -----
From: Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:12 pm
Subject: Coherent Chameleon laser lifetime
To: [hidden email]

> Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally
>  used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system
>  recently began performing unstably, sometimes even
>  not getting "modelocked".
>
>  The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.
>  However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals
>  may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k
>  with one more year warranty.
>
>  I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options
>  and laser lifetime.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Arvydas
>  *************
>
>
>
>
>  Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
>  Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
>  Department of Pharmacology
>  SUNY Upstate Medical University
>  766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
>  Syracuse, NY 13210
>  tel.: [phone]
>  fax: [phone]
>  email: [hidden email]
>

--
G. Esteban Fernandez, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Molecular Cytology Core Facility
University of Missouri
120 Bond Life Sciences Center
Columbia, MO  65211

http://www.biotech.missouri.edu/mcc/

573-882-4895
573-884-9395 fax

[Craig Brideau]

Hooray!  Glad it was a simple solution for you.  Every time there's a hiccup like that with an expensive laser system it can be stressful for everyone!

Craig

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi all,

 

thanks for the suggestions: after checking/setting  chiller/baseplate temperatures our Chameleon laser

again is stable as usual.

 

Actually Chameleon manual states that proper temperature settings are important, and now based on my own experience

I can confirm that they are REALLY important. Fortunately the laser performance has nothing

to do with crystal degradation as follows from the replies and my enquiries to Ti:Sa laser owners.

 

Arvydas

 

>>> "G. Esteban Fernandez" <[hidden email]> 11/13/2008 12:56 PM >>>

We had modelock problems for some time but the laser has been very reliable (or at least predictable) since we've been setting the chiller temp. to 27°C at start-up.  This is higher than the what the laser should be operating at and may give a diode overcurrent fault, so we only use that temp. for start-up.  Once it modelocks we turn the chiller back down to 23°C.  Of course it doesn't like the temp. change but it seems less harsh than smashing it with your hand :)  Contact me off-list for the dirty details of how we keep modelock without having to spend $40k.

 

-Esteban

 

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:37 PM, LANCE RODENKIRCH <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi  Arvydas,

I would check my baseplate temperature.  Main menu/Pump laser menu/verdi laser status/baseplate temp.  The baseplate should be 33 C.  Are you using the original Thermotek pump that was shipped with the unit?
Coherent advises to change the chiller water monthly. Can you achieve modelock by doing a pzt recovery?  Main menu/chameleon status/PZT recovery.

If this is a temperature problem, you should get error codes number 44 and 50 on the front interface.  I have 6K hours on a 5 year old Chameleon but I have been having similar issues since July.  To other Chameleon operators out there, how often are they doing PZT recoveries?

It would be best to start the laser at a known calibration point such as
800nm and then tune to the desired wavelength.  A standard Chameleon has
23 calibrated points across the tuning range.
The system will first attempt to modelock at the desired wavelength.
Should it not modelock on the first try, it will tune to the next
closest calibrated point, modelock, then tune back to the desired
wavelength so that a modelock pulse is obtained.


Lance Rodenkirch
W.M Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
1300 University Ave Rm 172 MSC
Madison, WI  53706
http://www.keck.bioimaging.wisc.edu/
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

----- Original Message -----
From: Arvydas Matiukas <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:12 pm
Subject: Coherent Chameleon laser lifetime
To: [hidden email]


> Our Coherent Chameleon laser which was ocassionally
>  used for 2p or 2p-DAPI excitation on LSM510 system
>  recently began performing unstably, sometimes even
>  not getting "modelocked".
>
>  The laser is 4 years old but was used only 1000 hrs.
>  However, Coherent engineer states that lasing crystals
>  may have degraded and suggest to replace them for $15-30k
>  with one more year warranty.
>
>  I would appreciate any advice/comment on cheaper options
>  and laser lifetime.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Arvydas
>  *************
>
>
>
>
>  Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
>  Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Imaging Core Facility
>  Department of Pharmacology
>  SUNY Upstate Medical University
>  766 Irving Ave., WH 3159
>  Syracuse, NY 13210
>  tel.: [phone]
>  fax: [phone]
>  email: [hidden email]
>

--
G. Esteban Fernandez, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Molecular Cytology Core Facility
University of Missouri
120 Bond Life Sciences Center
Columbia, MO  65211

http://www.biotech.missouri.edu/mcc/

573-882-4895
573-884-9395 fax