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Dear Christian,

I am usually taking a single mode fiber, couple the laser in, use a 
small focal length lens (f40) to collimate the output, fix it all with 
optomechanics and there you go. I recently bought a small 80mW 808nm 
laser diode for $20 and used it to align a two-photon system. be aware, 
if you have a cavity, such as a Ti:SAP laser, this will not guarantee 
proper alignment. best is to have your laser output through a fiber 
which you then use to couple your backward laser in (check the end of 
that fiber for light going through). unfortunately, there is no 
broadband (i.e 720-950nm) low GVD fiber on the market for two-photon 
systems (please prove me wrong!)
that should give you pretty good results.

Good luck,
Philipp

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>
> Dear list,
>
> I have heard about these nifty little tools several times in the past, 
> but have been unable to find one at any of the usual sources: a laser 
> pointer with an objective threading that is aligned with the optical 
> axis of the objective. The result is an retrograde laser beam, making 
> alignment of a new laser a piece of cake (or so I hope).
>
> Does anyone have a suggestion of where I might find one of these?
>
> Cheers, Christian