SDL 5401-G1, October 2001- February 6, 2007
SDL 5401-G1 ("Sid" to friends) died today of static shock, after five years of service in a grating-locked diode laser system. He had survived three lab floods, and more than a dozen power outages, but succombed to electric shock following a mishap with a Tesla coil.
He is survived by three siblings from the same batch, one of whom has already taken his place in the grating-locked laser mount. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send research grants.
Sic transit gloria laseri.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Yesterday, I spent $52 (plus shipping) buying sand. Not a gret big sack of sand, either-- just 200 grams of it. I count it as a bargain, too, because I was prepared to spend twice the amount for half as much.
Now, granted, the $1000/kg sand is extremely high purity silicon dioxide, designed to be…
I ended the previous laser post by noting that diode lasers need some additional wavelength selection to be done in order to be useful as light sources for spectroscopy experiments. In their natural state, they tend to emit light over a broader range of wavelengths than is really ideal, and we'd…
"Ahhhh... summer at last. No more classes. No more committee meetings. Do you realize what this means?"
"Ummmmm.... no. What does it mean? What are we going to do this summer, Brain?"
"The same thing we do every summer.... Try to do PUBLISHABLE RESEARCH!!!"
------------
"Are you pondering what I'm…
A week or two ago, one of my students measured the power output of a grating-locked diode laser, and came into my office saying "I think I may have killed the laser." The power output was much too low for a laser of that type, which is a bad sign.
So, we went down to the lab, and looked at the…
That was really funny, but....
What the heck was a Tesla Coil doing so close to your laser?
Did you leave out the part where he was really cheap, but highly valued cause he lased at JUST the right frequency????
5 years ain't bad from what me experimentalist friends tell me!