HeNe laser, is a type of gas laser whose gain medium consists of a mixture of 85% helium and 15% neon inside of a small bore capillary tube, usually excited by a DC electrical discharge. The best-known and most widely used HeNe laser operates at a wavelength of 632 nm, in the red part of the visible spectrum.
The gain medium of the laser is a mixture of helium and neon gases in a 5:1 to 20:1 ratio that is contained at low pressure in a sealed glass tube. The excitation source for these lasers is a high voltage.DC electrical discharge through an anode and cathode at each end of the glass tube. The optical cavity of the laser consists of a flat, highreflecting mirror (HR) at one end of the laser tube, and an output coupler mirror (OC) with approximately 1% transmission at the other end.
HeNe lasers tend to be small, with cavity lengths of around 10 cm up to 1 m and optical output powers ranging from 0.5 mW to 50 mW. Thorlabs offers output powers up to 35 mW.
HeNe Applications
• Metrology
• Cleanroom Monitoring Equipment
• Food Sorting
• Flow Cytometry
• Confocal Microscopy
• Imaging and Medical Equipment
• Opacity Monitoring
• Alignment
• Maritime Visual Guidance Systems
• Spectroscopy
Specifications:
Wavelength：632.991 nm
Series Resistors in Housing：66 kΩ
Operating Current：5.0 mA
Weight：600 g
CDRH/CE Classification： IIIa/3R (HRR005 is IIa/2)
Un-stabilized Power：1.2 mW min, 2.7 mW max
Stabilized Power：>1.2 mW
Polarization：Linear > 1000:1
Mode Structure：TEM00 > 99%
Beam Diameter：0.7 mm
Beam Divergence：< 1.4 mrad
Beam Drift (during warm-up)：<0.2 mrad
Long-Term Beam Drift：<0.2 mrad
Noise (30 Hz – 10 MHz)：< 1% rms max.
Starting Voltage：< 7 kV (DC)
Operating Voltage (DC)：1400 V
Length (L)：11.66" (296.1 mm)
Diameter：Ø1.77" (Ø45 ± 0.5 mm)
Operating Temperature ²：15 – 30 °C
Time to Lock³：< 15 minutes, Typical
Power Input：100 - 240 VAC, 50 - 60 Hz
Power Consumption：< 40 VA
Lifetime (Typ.)⁴：25,000 h
Frequency Stabilized Mode：
1 min ：±1 MHz
1 hour：±2 MHz
8 hours：±3 MHz
Intensity Stabilized Mode：
1 min：±0.1 %
1 hour：±0.2 %
8 hours：±0.3 %
Beam Diameter (D): 1 mm
Cavity Length (L): 0.10 m (0.5 mW) to 1 m (50 mW)
Reflectivity at High Reflector (HR): >99.99%
Transmission at Output Coupler (OC): ~1%
