Laser Shutter Mechanism and Optics Mount

The optics mount before installation.

The shutter mechanism in action.

I machined the optics mount from a piece of Teflon round stock. A 40x microscope objective resides within the cylinder, collimating the laser. The cable drives a wedge of Teflon sheet into a slot, pulling a second sheet of Teflon into the path of the collimated laser beam.

Left: diode linearity. Right: the diode mounted to a large heat sink.

The diode is linear until just over 2.2 Amps where output is roughly 1.5 Watts output, which is primarily the power at which I operated the laser. Because of the high power, I affixed the diode to a large heatsink, though the diode never did get alarmingly warm.