by Doug Coulter » Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:18 pm
Yeah, I lecture people all the time about what things like .9^N work out to, but it's interesting that even their mirrors aren't claiming better numbers than just plain Al (as I linked above) or even going back in time, John Strong's numbers, even with the MgF. Funny thing that. I was thinking you need at most two mirrors - one for focus to spot, one for XY movement, but I could be wrong about that. No lenses for certain!
In my idea, you don't need super power - at 3-4w CW, that's still going to expose really fast anyway, and be off most of the time as well (only on where you want the stuff to stay).
I have the same issue with my big Nd:YAG - beam too small and dense to work with as is...I called all the fancy optics guys and they are saying no way, spread it out somehow, then our products can work on it.
But how do you get there from here?
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.