A Home-Built HeNe Laser Requiring No Glassworking?
(From: George Werner (glwerner@sprynet.com).) Yes, it’s possible because I have done it. The trick is to mill or saw a 1/2 inch aluminum plate to hold the window at 56 degrees to the axis of a hole you drill through it to receive the small bore laser tube. A side hole connects with this hole into which is glued a nipple for attachment to a vacuum system. Drill and tap a 6-32 hole somewhere for a screw to attach a wire because this piece is also an electrode. The one I made had a few extra square inches extending below so that I could put it in a beaker of water to dissipate the heat from the electrode. The allowable temperature of the aluminum is limited by the heat tolerance of the Epoxy you use to glue it together. Mine was a DC laser so only one end (the cathode) needed to be this large. A photo of that part of the tube is shown in Cathode-End of Home-Built HeNe Laser Requiring No Glassworking. The aluminum block cathode and negative power supply lead can be seen with the Brewster w
