Tune-A-Flex Element
Elk Industries, R-K Manufacturing
The Tune-a-Flex element from Elk Industries LLC acts as a color filter. It looks like an ordinary piece of glass, but, when held up to a light and looked through, it will "filter" light into a red color. When the plate is tilted, from one angle to another and in the same plane, it changes color from deep red to bright green.
Guaranteed efficiency is >90% and, typically, ≥95%. There is no refractive activity to cause problems for imaging applications. Five separate types cover five different spectral ranges, which can accommodate the entire visible wavelength range, with some overlap.
The company can tune its Acryline acrylic polymer disc Model 90 OEM solid-state dye laser from ~550 to 620 nm, essentially from bright green to deep red. The simple setup consists of basic elements and is suited for use in narrow-linewidth tuning. Because of the element’s high efficiency, tuning is simple and does not exhibit the losses associated with ordinary single-linewidth tuning.
It can be difficult to arrange and align a set of beam expanding optics, such as a concave lens or a set of beam expanding prisms used in conjunction with a diffraction grating to tune a laser because of the losses associated with such multiple prism-grating tuning systems. A diffraction grating alone is unsuitable for imaging applications because it presents substantial losses into the laser cavity.
With tune-a-flex, a single element can be used to allow narrow-linewidth tuning with high efficiency. For use in polymer or polystyrene dye lasers, it affords the user a greater range of applications, besides the usual broadband outputs obtained without a tuner.
In the construction of master oscillator power amplifiers, the option of amplifying laser oscillator wavelengths outside of the broadband peak wavelength means that virtually any laser output wavelength can be amplified. In terms of CCD, CMOS, photomultiplier or PIN silicon imaging systems, either fixed- or variable-wavelength, image quality can be adjusted to user specifications.
The company offers a variety of holders and rotational stages for the element, as well as spacers and offset hardware and supplies.
The device is completely linear and offers continuous and contiguous tuning and filtration. Laser damage threshold is ≥1 J/cm2 at 532 nm, with pulse durations of ≤20 ns, meaning that, at longer pulse durations or in continuous-wave mode, the element is not subject to laser-induced damage and can operate easily within cavities of high-energy/high-power lasers.
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Published: January 2011