<==== Sam's Laser FAQ ====>


Safety, Info, Links, Parts, Types, Drive, Construction

A Practical Guide to Lasers for Experimenters and Hobbyists
Version 4.46

Copyright (C) 1994,1995,1996,1997,1998
Samuel M. Goldwasser
--- All Rights Reserved ---

Corrections or suggestions to: sam@stdavids.picker.com

Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

  1. This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning.
  2. There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying.

Welcome!

This document (named Sam's Laser FAQ) has a great deal of practical information on a variety of laser related topics:

What's New as of V4.40

In addition to many general additions and enhancements, the following may be noteworthy:

What's New as of V4.25

What's New as of V4.00

Sam's Laser FAQ was developed to provide a unique resource for experimenters and hobbyists - as well as just plain old basement tinkerers. To the best of my knowledge, nothing as comprehensive has ever been available anywhere else in the explored universe (and almost certainly beyond) either on-line or in print.

If this was what you were looking for, your search is over! :-)

Sam's Laser FAQ Sites

Check out the Home and Mirror Site Locations page for a list of places to find Sam's Laser FAQ (as well as the complete Sci.Electronics.Repair (S.E.R) FAQ and Silicon Sam's Technology Resource (SSTR).

The mirror sites (no pun intended... OK, well maybe just a little one-sided one) will always maintain a reasonably current version of this document. Check the individual sites for the latest version and specific viewing and download options and try to use the site nearest you to minimize Web traffic!

Note: The Sci.Electronics.Repair (S.E.R) FAQ usually includes Silicon Sam's Technology Resource (SSTR). SSTR always includes Sam's Laser FAQ. The Laser Equipment Gallery (LEG) is only present at selected sites.

The SSTR Home Site (which is part of the S.E.R FAQ Home Site) will always have the very latest version of Sam's Laser FAQ hot off of my computer's hard drive! Those at the others should be very nearly as recent - all nicely formatted, indexed, and cross referenced. The 'Zipped' entries provide the compressed file "laserfaq.zip" containing the text and all referenced artwork (photographs, diagrams, and schematics). Thus, it is very convenient to set up a local browser-accessible copy. Just download "laserfaq.zip", unzip into its own directory, and add a bookmark or link to the file: "lasersam.htm" or direct to "laserfaq.htm" bypassing the pleasantries and mirror site info. The total size is over 3.5 MB after decompression. Make sure you have the space! See Sam's Laser FAQ Local Installation for more information.

There is also an early versiond (eve predates the name "Sam's Laser FAQ) at The Laser Resource Library which is quite ancient (and ugly) at this point. I have no plans to update it mainly because I have lost the password and become disgusted with the annoying advertising imposed by the operators of that site. :-)

Note: Where another document title is referenced without a hot link or identification of a specific book or paper, it will be located at the S.E.R FAQ Home Site or one of its mirror sites.

We are always looking for contributions (of all types) in any and all laser related areas to expand the content of these sites.



Forward to Sam's Laser FAQ Table of Contents.