Hughes Model 3184H HeNe Laser Head
Serving Suggestion: HENETBK1 Mounted on Test Rail.
Closeup of OC-End of Hughes 3184H Test Rail.
The kit consists of:
The original mirrors are included. The HR is still attached and aligned, so it should be very easy to get the laser head to lase by holding the OC mirror plate against the laser head and rocking it a bit. This also makes it much easier to align with an adjustable external mirror. To do anything interesting, you'll want to mount the laser head between a pair of adjustable mirror mounts *before* removing the HR mirror. Doing so in this order will make alignment with your external mirrors much easier.
Some basic electrical skills (soldering) and mechanical skills will be required to fabricate a suitable stable platform for the laser tube and adjustable mirror mounts to make a working laser once the original mirrors are removed. (If you have access to some basic optical bench parts, mounting can be greatly simplified using standard HeNe laser tube mounts with pan-tilt mirror mounts on an optical table or rail.)
These laser heads are vintage, but guaranteed to produce 3-5 mW of 633 nm (red) photons using suitable mirrors. Depending on the mirrors and their position, either single more (TEM00) or multimode output may be achieved.
For additional details on the Hughes 3184, see the sections of Sam's Laser FAQ: The Ancient Hughes HeNe Laser Head and A HREF="laserhtr.htm#htr3184h">Some Hughes 3184H Semi-Antique Hughes Laser Heads.
Information on using this laser head once you get it can be found in: Care and Feeding of the Hughes 3184 Two-Brewster HeNe Laser Head.
Note: I DO NOT recommend attempting to remove the actual laser tube from the housing. It's a royal pain and breakage is a very significant possibility.
If you don't know what this is, how to use it, or what to do with it, you probably don't need it or want it! Where you would just like to have a working HeNe laser, complete systems or components are available here and elsewhere.