Substitution for Ar laser on LSM5 Pascal

[Ben Melchior]

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Hi listers,

Our Lasos 450-514nm Argon laser on our LSM5 Pascal has gone down.   Lasos
does not make any similar Ar laser anymore and Zeiss charges an outrageous
price for a refurbished one.     I was wondering if anyone has tried to use
another brand of laser without having to add mirrors, filters and/or
reconfigurate the whole system?
Alternatively, does anyone has a similar Lasos LGK 7812 ML3 to refurbish at a
decent price?

Thanks,
Ben

[Craig Brideau]

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Argon lasers are available from a number of laser companies.  If you get one
from one of the big manufacturers/resellers, Melles Griot, Thorlabs,
Coherent, Spectra Physics, you should be able to get the wavelengths you
need in a reasonably stable laser.  Typical price of an Argon-ion is about
~$10k USD for a 50 or 100mW unit.  Make sure the RMS noise is low enough for
your needs and check the warranty period offered by the manufacturer.

Craig


On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Ben Melchior <[hidden email]> wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Hi listers,
>
> Our Lasos 450-514nm Argon laser on our LSM5 Pascal has gone down.   Lasos
> does not make any similar Ar laser anymore and Zeiss charges an outrageous
> price for a refurbished one.     I was wondering if anyone has tried to use
> another brand of laser without having to add mirrors, filters and/or
> reconfigurate the whole system?
> Alternatively, does anyone has a similar Lasos LGK 7812 ML3 to refurbish at
> a
> decent price?
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>

[Stephen Firth (Med)]

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http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
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We recently substituted a solid state laser for the Ar on our Olympus FV1000
system, the only modification required was a mount to install the much
smaller laser onto the laser combiner frame. The smaller unit can then be
placed to mimic the entry/angle on the Ar laser, so no need to reconfigure,
just needed alignment by the olympus engineer. This might be more
complicated if the laser is fibre coupled, I'm not familiar with the Pascal,
and may cause issues with sofware control of laser power, I don't know the
Pascal software.

We get our lasers refurbished for a fraction of the cost of replacement,
please email direct for more information if you're interested.
Cheers,
Stephen


On 26 October 2010 08:49, Craig Brideau <[hidden email]> wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Argon lasers are available from a number of laser companies.  If you get
> one
> from one of the big manufacturers/resellers, Melles Griot, Thorlabs,
> Coherent, Spectra Physics, you should be able to get the wavelengths you
> need in a reasonably stable laser.  Typical price of an Argon-ion is about
> ~$10k USD for a 50 or 100mW unit.  Make sure the RMS noise is low enough
> for
> your needs and check the warranty period offered by the manufacturer.
>
> Craig
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Ben Melchior <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > *****
> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > *****
> >
> > Hi listers,
> >
> > Our Lasos 450-514nm Argon laser on our LSM5 Pascal has gone down.   Lasos
> > does not make any similar Ar laser anymore and Zeiss charges an
> outrageous
> > price for a refurbished one.     I was wondering if anyone has tried to
> use
> > another brand of laser without having to add mirrors, filters and/or
> > reconfigurate the whole system?
> > Alternatively, does anyone has a similar Lasos LGK 7812 ML3 to refurbish
> at
> > a
> > decent price?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ben
> >
>

--
Stephen Firth
Manager of Advanced Optical Microscopy
Monash Micro Imaging
Monash University
Room G58 Building 75
Phone [phone]
Mob [phone]

[Craig Brideau]

*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
*****

The only drawback with the diode-pumped solid-state lasers is they only
produce one wavelength per laser.  Argon lasers can have six lines or so
output simultaneously!  If you are using more than one line out of your gas
laser, replacing it with solid state gets expensive:  You will need to buy
multiple lasers to replace the single gas laser to get all the lines you
need.

Craig


On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 6:17 PM, Stephen Firth (Med) <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> We recently substituted a solid state laser for the Ar on our Olympus
> FV1000
> system, the only modification required was a mount to install the much
> smaller laser onto the laser combiner frame. The smaller unit can then be
> placed to mimic the entry/angle on the Ar laser, so no need to reconfigure,
> just needed alignment by the olympus engineer. This might be more
> complicated if the laser is fibre coupled, I'm not familiar with the
> Pascal,
> and may cause issues with sofware control of laser power, I don't know the
> Pascal software.
>
> We get our lasers refurbished for a fraction of the cost of replacement,
> please email direct for more information if you're interested.
> Cheers,
> Stephen
>
>
> On 26 October 2010 08:49, Craig Brideau <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > *****
> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > *****
> >
> > Argon lasers are available from a number of laser companies.  If you get
> > one
> > from one of the big manufacturers/resellers, Melles Griot, Thorlabs,
> > Coherent, Spectra Physics, you should be able to get the wavelengths you
> > need in a reasonably stable laser.  Typical price of an Argon-ion is
> about
> > ~$10k USD for a 50 or 100mW unit.  Make sure the RMS noise is low enough
> > for
> > your needs and check the warranty period offered by the manufacturer.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Ben Melchior <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > *****
> > > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > > *****
> > >
> > > Hi listers,
> > >
> > > Our Lasos 450-514nm Argon laser on our LSM5 Pascal has gone down.
> Lasos
> > > does not make any similar Ar laser anymore and Zeiss charges an
> > outrageous
> > > price for a refurbished one.     I was wondering if anyone has tried to
> > use
> > > another brand of laser without having to add mirrors, filters and/or
> > > reconfigurate the whole system?
> > > Alternatively, does anyone has a similar Lasos LGK 7812 ML3 to
> refurbish
> > at
> > > a
> > > decent price?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Ben
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Stephen Firth
> Manager of Advanced Optical Microscopy
> Monash Micro Imaging
> Monash University
> Room G58 Building 75
> Phone [phone]
> Mob [phone]
>