To join or leave the molecular-dynamics-news email list, go to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/molecular-dynamics-news.htmlI was wondering if anyone has any good tips on cleaning dye laser cuvettes. At the moment the cuvette on the amplifier stage of my Lambda Physik 3002 dye laser is particularly damaged from where the excimer laser beam hits the dye in the cuvette. At the moment I’m losing up to 30 – 40 % output, based on adjusting the cuvette height to find an undamaged bit of the cuvette. While having reduced output is OK I have noticed that the damage is catalytic-like and gets worse quickly, over a matter of days, and results in a serious clicking noise where the cuvette and the pump meet. This dye laser has been running with the same type of dye for a number of years, so while the dye is changed the circulator is rarely totally flushed with pure solvent before adding the fresh dye. Could this be contributing to the damage? I should confess that the cuvette is approximately 20 years old but if anyone has any tips on cleaning them I might be able to hold off buying a new one.
The damage on the cuvette looks like a brown deposit from a distance but close up it might actually be scratches in the quartz, but I’m not sure.
Regards,
Mark
Mark Blitz
School of Chemistry,
University of Leeds,
Woodhouse Lane,
Leeds LS2 9JT. U.K.
Tel 0113 343 6594
Email: [log in to unmask]