Home-Built Nitrogen (N2) Laser
`The nitrogen (N2) laser produces intense extremely short (a few ns) intense (100 kW typical) pulses of light in the near UV portion of the E/M spectrum (337.1 nm). Despite this impressive capability, the N2 laser is among the easiest to construct [..]
Compared to all the other home-built lasers, the nitrogen laser also likely has the lowest risk of failure IFF you stay pretty close to the SciAm design, more below. No glass working, no mirrors, mirror mounts, or mirror alignment, minimal vacuum. Despite this, what you end up with isn’t substantially inferior to a commercial unit costing many kilobucks.’
