This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8603, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

For mobile surface treatment it is convenient to work with flexible fiber coupled lasers. To keep the focusing optic sufficiently small it is necessary to have small fiber core diameters and a small outgoing numerical aperture. The knowledge of the resonator beam parameters is essential for long term stable fiber coupling conditions. We demonstrate that the out-coupling beam diameter is suitable as a control process variable for this purpose. For high power side pumped Nd:YAG lasers it is necessary to have an effective rod cooling to compensate thermal lensing. By adapting the rod cooling to the thermal lensing it is possible to keep the beam diameter constant. In this case the water flow of the rod cooling circuit has to be independent from pump diode cooling circuit and has to be controlled by a beam profile measurement inside the resonator. The half angle of the laser beam outside the resonator is dependent on the resonator length and the pump power and therefore the thermal lensing. If the beam diameter on the mirror is constant, the numerical aperture of the laser is also constant. If the beam diameter changes due to diode degradation or other effects inside the resonator, the diameter as a process control variable should control the flow of the rod cooling. Thus, the thermal lensing could be adapted, to control the beam diameter and as a result the numerical aperture for the fiber.

We are developing one kilohertz picosecond Yb:YAG thin disk regenerative amplifier with 500-W average power for medical and industrial applications. In case of high energy pulse amplification, a large area mode matching in gain media, which is drastically degenerated by the optical phase distortion, is required to avoid optical damage. We designed in-situ thin disk deformation measurement based on the combination of a precise wavefront sensor and a single mode probe beam. In contrast to a conventional interferometric measurement, this measurement is compact, easy-to-align, and is less affected by mechanical vibrations.

Modern pulsed laser applications cover a broad range of wavelength, power and pulse widths. Beam guiding optics in laser systems do not only have specific requirements on the imaging quality but also have to withstand high laser power. The laser damage threshold of an optical component depends on the surface (polishing, coating ...) and also on the bulk material properties. Actual values of bulk laser damage thresholds, particularly at pulse lengths less than 1 nanosecond (1 ns), of optical glasses are rarely found in literature, except for fused silica, which is known as a key optical material for components in high power laser. However, fused silica is rather expensive and limited in optical properties. That is the reason why customers often ask for laser damage threshold data of optical glasses. Therefore, SCHOTT has started a project for the characterization of the bulk laser damage threshold of optical glasses at the wavelengths 532 nm and 1064 nm with pulse lengths in the nano- and pico-second range. Bulk and surface laser damage testing has been performed by the Laser Zentrum Hannover in Germany according to the S-on-1 test of DIN EN ISO 11254-2 / DIN EN ISO 21254.

Chemical vapour deposited bulk diamond products have already found significant applications in high power laser systems including heatspreaders, output couplers and active components such as raman shifting or beam combining crystals. However, as new applications require ever increasing power densities the synthesis, processing and integration of diamond parts to fully utilise its exceptional properties becomes more challenging. We report on innovation in synthesis and processing of diamond that enables its properties to be fully exploited. Diamond parts with larger dimensions than previously achieved at extremely low defect density have been synthesised, and processed to flatness and roughness significantly beyond those previously reported. The achievements reported have allowed a number of exciting new developments in the use of diamond in high power laser systems.

There are residual scratches, inclusions and other forms of defects at surfaces of optical materials after the processes of grinding and polishing, which could either enhance the local electric field or increase the absorption rate of the material. As a result, the laser-induced damage threshold at the surface of the material is reduced greatly. In order to study underlying mechanisms and process of short pulsed laser-induced damage to K9 glass, a spatial axisymmetric model where the K9 glass was irradiated by a laser whose wavelength and pulse width are respectively 1064nm and 10ns was established. Taking into account the fact that the surface of the K9 glass is more likely to be damaged, 2μm-thick layers whose absorption coefficients are larger than bulk were set at both the input and output surfaces in the model. In addition, the model assumed that once the calculated tensile/compressive stress was greater than the tensile/compressive strength of K9 glass, the local absorption coefficient increased. The finite element method(FEM) was applied to calculate the temperature and thermal stress fields in the K9 glass. Results show that only the temperature of a small part of interacted region exceeds the melting point, while most of the damage pit is generated by thermal stress. The simulated damage morphology and the size of the damage region are consistent with those reported in literatures, which indicates that the model built in our work is reasonable.

During the first 20 years of TRUMPF’s existence as a laser company, it developed a reputation for standard products for applications, now referred to as the traditional industrial applications: laser cutting and welding of steel and aluminum. During the same time, TRUMPF acquired five basic technology platforms – fast-flow and diffusion-cooled CO₂ lasers, thin disk, diode and fiber lasers. The standard products cover only a small section of the multi-dimensional parameter space that can be covered with these five basic technologies. These platforms, however, provide enormous flexibility and highly reliable building blocks that are now used to fill white areas in the parameter space, enabling novel applications unrelated to the original applications for these technologies. Presented are some examples of how the scaling of these technologies has led to unique and novel laser devices and applications. They include the generation of EUV with CO₂ lasers, short-pulse applications with diffusion-cooled and fast-flow CO₂ lasers for processing of composite materials and plastics. Laser output power, the traditional main characteristic for CO₂ lasers, made way for pulse energies, pulse lengths and wavelength. The traditional cw thin disk laser platform was transformed into short and ultra-short pulse lasers with wavelengths down to 343 nm. Diode lasers evolved from low brightness pump sources for thin disk lasers to diode direct lasers. This flexibility will ensure that remaining white spaces in the parameter space can be filled in the future as required.

Fiber laser based brightness converters enable diode laser beam sources to access a superior beam quality of better than 10 mm × mrad in combination with multi kW output power. A design of a fiber laser that is based on a single active optical converter fiber that is pumped by a direct diode is presented. Due to the high transfer efficiency of such brightness converters an electrical/optical efficiency > 25% can be achieved. The current status with an output power > 4 kW in combination with a beam quality of < 5 mm × mrad will be described. The principal design of such diode laser based fiber brightness converters will be presented and building blocks of such lasers will be outlined. As an application example laser welding will be presented of both the fiber converter laser and direct diode laser using optical light guides with identical core diameters on both lasers for comparison. Additionally, fibers with a core diameter of 200μm will be used on the fiber converter laser to perform remote welding. The weld results will be compared regarding welding depth and surface quality of the weld samples to determine the optimum power/brightness levels for different aluminum and steel materials.

Ultrashort pulsed lasers based on thin disk technology have entered the 100 W regime and deliver several tens of MW peak power without chirped pulse amplification. Highest uptime and insensitivity to back reflections make them ideal tools for efficient and cost effective industrial micromachining. Frequency converted versions allow the processing of a large variety of materials. On one hand, thin disk oscillators deliver more than 30 MW peak power directly out of the resonator in laboratory setups. These peak power levels are made possible by recent progress in the scaling of the pulse energy in excess of 40 μJ. At the corresponding high peak intensity, thin disk technology profits from the limited amount of material and hence the manageable nonlinearity within the resonator. Using new broadband host materials like for example the sesquioxides will eventually reduce the pulse duration during high power operation and further increase the peak power. On the other hand industry grade amplifier systems deliver even higher peak power levels. At closed-loop controlled 100W, the TruMicro Series 5000 currently offers the highest average ultrafast power in an industry proven product, and enables efficient micromachining of almost any material, in particular of glasses, ceramics or sapphire. Conventional laser cutting of these materials often requires UV laser sources with pulse durations of several nanoseconds and an average power in the 10 W range. Material processing based on high peak power laser sources makes use of multi-photon absorption processes. This highly nonlinear absorption enables micromachining driven by the fundamental (1030 nm) or frequency doubled (515 nm) wavelength of Yb:YAG. Operation in the IR or green spectral range reduces the complexity and running costs of industrial systems initially based on UV light sources. Where UV wavelength is required, the TruMicro 5360 with a specified UV crystal life-time of more than 10 thousand hours of continues operation at 15W is an excellent choice. Currently this is the world’s most powerful industrial sub-10 ps UV laser.

Fiber lasers are competing with the traditional CO2 Laser, Plasma, Water Jet and Press Punch technology. This paper concentrates on the drivers behind the progress that ≤500W CW fiber lasers have made in the thin metal cutting and welding market. Thin metal cutting in this case is defined as below 4mm and the dominant technology has been the Press Punch for higher quality, large volume components and Plasma for lower quality, small quantities. Up until the fiber lasers were commercially available many machine manufacturers were deterred from incorporating lasers due to the technical barriers posed by the lasers available at that time. In particular fiber laser requires no maintenance does not necessitate a beam path to be aligned and kept free of contaminant so have encouraged many traditionally non-laser machine builders to integrate fiber sources into a variety of applications and push the performance envelope. All of the components to build a fibre laser cutting or welding system are now available “off-the shelf” which is even allowing end users to design and build their own systems directly in production environments.

Laser shock processing (LSP) is being increasingly applied as an effective technology for the improvement of metallic materials mechanical and surface properties in different types of components as a means of enhancement of their corrosion and fatigue life behavior. As reported in previous contributions by the authors, a main effect resulting from the application of the LSP technique consists on the generation of relatively deep compression residual stresses field into metallic alloy pieces allowing an improved mechanical behaviour, explicitly the life improvement of the treated specimens against wear, crack growth and stress corrosion cracking. Additional results accomplished by the authors in the line of practical development of the LSP technique at an experimental level (aiming its integral assessment from an interrelated theoretical and experimental point of view) are presented in this paper. Concretely, follow-on experimental results on the residual stress profiles and associated surface properties modification successfully reached in typical materials (especially Al and Ti alloys characteristic of high reliability components in the aerospace, nuclear and biomedical sectors) under different LSP irradiation conditions are presented along with a practical correlated analysis on the protective character of the residual stress profiles obtained under different irradiation strategies. Additional remarks on the improved character of the LSP technique over the traditional “shot peening” technique in what concerns depth of induced compressive residual stresses fields are also made through the paper.

A number of upcoming industrial applications prove that the laser offers great possibilities for parts cleaning and surface pretreatment. Thereby laser technology enables solutions to reduce production costs and to increase productivity and quality in the manufacturing process. Examples are the removal of oil, grease, phosphate layers or corrosion with the laser. This paper will focus on parts cleaning and surface pretreatment applications within the automotive industry. For a range of examples it will be shown that the laser not only offers advantages to carry out the described production step (such as cleaning or the creation of functional textures) but also offers great advantages for a following production step within the chain, such as a welding or gluing process. It will be demonstrated that several ns and ps laser sources and systems can be selected, depending on the application.

This article presents an exhaustive mathematical model for the simulation of hypo-eutectoid carbon steel trans- formations during laser hardening. The proposed model takes into consideration all the the phenomena involved in the process with particular attention to implementing easy mathematical formulas in order to optimize the trade-o between the accuracy of the predicted results and the computational times. The proposed model calculates the 3D thermal eld occurring into the workpiece and predicts the microstructural evolution of the target material exploiting an original approach based on the de nition of thermodynamic thresholds. Several parameters and phenomena are taken into consideration in order to accurately simulate the process: laser beam characteristics, scanning strategy of the target and tempering e ect due to mutually interacting beam trajecto- ries.

Laser shock peening is a well-known technology able to enhance the fatigue life of mechanical components by means of the introduction of residual stresses on their surface. These stresses are induced by means of the recoil pressure caused by the abrupt expansion, in a confining medium, of a laser-vaporized coating layer. If high power densities are used the recoil pressure can be high enough to induce compressive residual stresses on the target surface and to modify its mechanical properties. These mechanical properties can be predicted if the recoil pressure of the ablating layer is determined. In this paper the influence of the laser pulse shape on the recoil pressure is determined by means of a proper modeling of the whole process and the difference between cold" and warm" laser shock peening is pointed out.

To fully exploit the potential of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (FRTC) and to achieve a broad industrial application, automated manufacturing systems are crucial. Investigations at Fraunhofer IPT have proven that the use of laser system technology in processing FRTC allows to achieve high throughput, quality, flexibility, reproducibility and out-of-autoclave processing simultaneously. As 90% of the FRP in Europe1 are glass fiber-reinforced a high impact can be achieved by introducing laser-assisted processing with all its benefits to glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (GFRTC). Fraunhofer IPT has developed the diode laser-assisted tape placement (laying and winding) to process carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTC) for years. However, this technology cannot be transferred unchanged to process milky transparent GFRTC prepregs (preimpregnated fibers). Due to the short wavelength (approx. 980 nm) and therefore high transmission less than 20% of the diode laser energy is absorbed as heat into non-colored GFRTC prepregs. Hence, the use of a different wave length, e.g. CO₂-laser (10.6 μm) with more than 90% laser absorption, is required to allow the full potential of laser-assisted processing of GFRTC. Also the absorption of CO₂-laser radiation at the surface compared to volume absorption of diode laser radiation is beneficial for the interlaminar joining of GFRTC. Fraunhofer IPT is currently developing and investigating the CO₂-laser-assisted tape placement including new system, beam guiding, process and monitoring technology to enable a resource and energy efficient mass production of GFRP composites, e.g. pipes, tanks, masts. The successful processing of non-colored glass fiber-reinforced Polypropylene (PP) and Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) has already been proven.

Both technical and economic reasons suggest to join dissimilar metals, benefiting from the specific properties of each material in order to perform flexible design. Adhesive bonding and mechanical joining have been traditionally used although adhesives fail to be effective in high-temperature environments and mechanical joining are not adequate for leak-tight joints. Friction stir welding is a valid alternative, even being difficult to perform for specific joint geometries and thin plates. The attention has therefore been shifted to laser welding. Interest has been shown in welding titanium to aluminum, especially in the aviation industry, in order to benefit from both corrosive resistance and strength properties of the former, and low weight and cost of the latter. Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V and aluminum alloy 2024 are considered in this work, being them among the most common ones in aerospace and automotive industries. Laser welding is thought to be particularly useful in reducing the heat affected zones and providing deep penetrative beads. Nevertheless, many challenges arise in welding dissimilar metals and the aim is further complicated considering the specific features of the alloys in exam, being them susceptible to oxidation on the upper surface and porosity formation in the fused zone. As many variables are involved, a systematic approach is used to perform the process and to characterize the beads referring to their shape and mechanical features, since a mixture of phases and structures is formed in the fused zone after recrystallization.

Against the background of climate objectives and the desired reduction of CO₂-emissions, optimization of existing industrial products is needed. To counter rising raw material costs, currently used materials are substituted. This will places new requirements on joining technologies for dissimilar material classes. The main difficulty lies in joining these materials cohesively without changing the properties of the base materials. Current research work at the LZH on joining dissimilar materials is being carried out for the automotive sector and for solar absorbers. For the automotive industry, a laser welding process for joining steel and aluminum without using additives is being investigated, equipped with a spectroscopic welding depth control to increase tensile strength. With a specially constructed laser processing head, it is possible to regulate welding penetration depth in the aluminum sheet, reducing the formation of intermetallic phases. Flat plate solar collectors are favorable devices for generating heat from solar energy. The solar absorber is the central part of a collector, consisting of an aluminum sheet and a copper tube which is attached to the aluminum sheet. Research on new laser welding processes aims at reducing the amount of energy required for production of these solar absorbers. In the field of joining dissimilar materials, laser joining processes, especially for special applications, will complement established joining techniques.

Since a few years, high brilliance laser sources find their way into laser material processing. Laser micro processing by applying high brilliance laser radiation up to 3 kW of continuous wave laser power in combination with ultrafast beam deflection systems has been successfully demonstrated in 2008 for the first time. In the fields of laser welding, high brilliant laser radiation was mainly used for micro welding, but up to now the macro range is still insufficiently investigated. Hence, this study reports on detailed investigations of high speed laser welding of different steel grades, performed with a high power single mode fiber laser source. The laser beam was deflected relative to the sample by using both a fast galvanometer scanner system with f-theta focusing objective and a linear axis in combination with a welding optic, respectively. In the study, the mainly process influencing parameters such as laser power, welding speed, thickness of the metal sheets, angle of incidence and laser beam spot size were varied in a wide range. The weld seam quality was evaluated by structural analyses, static tensile tests and EDX measurements. Finally, the laser welding process has been optimized for different weld seam geometries, for example bead-on-plate welds and butt welds.

This paper describes the idea of using a similar vacuum necessary for electron beam welding also for welding with a solid-state laser. While for electron beam welding a fine vacuum is required for the process, with laser beam welding the pressure can be varied as an additional process parameter in order to influence the process result. Test results show that by a reduction of the ambient pressure the metal vapor plume is suppressed and consequently the spattering decreases. Plume and spatters disappear completely at a pressure reduction to p = 10 hPa and below. This enables quality of weldings with the solid-state laser which even with CO₂ lasers are only difficult to realize. The quality of these weld seams is comparable to electron beam weldings. In addition, further beneficial properties arise in the quality of the weld seam. With the same process parameters but reduced ambient pressure, the reduction of the pressure effects an increase of the penetration depth and a distinctive modification of the seam geometry. Mild steel plates with a thickness of 10 mm have been successfully welded with a laser power of P_L = 6000 W and a feed rate of v_W = 2.0 m/min, with a remarkable seam quality without any irregularities. Another advantage of welding with the laser at reduced pressure is the possibility of avoiding a sagging of the seam during welding of thick sheets. Despite excessive energy and power, no geometric irregularities are identified in the cross section. Under atmospheric pressure, the high excess of power would lead to an intense seam collapse. On sheets with thicknesses of 3 mm, the notches occurring by penetration welding can also be avoided by applying reduced pressure.

Within the past couple of years one can see several trends in laser material processing. On the one hand optimized application results necessitate advancements of the equipment such as laser sources, laser light cables and focusing optics. On the other hand the optimization of the application results due to in depth process understanding and optimized accessories is indispensible. This paper will link the increase in process knowledge, especially in high power welding, based on modern process diagnostic methods to an optimization of accessories. We will show an example of the influence of the metal vapor plume on the achieved welding results and present a component allowing more consistent welding results regarding surface quality and penetration depth. The second part of the paper will focus on the latest advances in remote scanner processing.

In this paper, energy aspects related to the efficiency of laser welding process using a 2 kW Nd:YAG laser were investigated and reported. AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets 3.3 mm thick were butt-welded without filler using Helium and Argon as shielding gases. A three-dimensional and semi-stationary finite element model was developed to evaluate the effect of laser power and welding speed on the absorption coefficient, the melting and welding efficiencies. The modeled volumetric heat source took into account a scale factor, and the shape factors given by the attenuation of the beam within the workpiece and the beam intensity distribution. The numerical model was calibrated using experimental data on the basis of morphological parameters of the weld bead. Results revealed a good correspondence between experiment and simulation analysis of the energy aspects of welding. Considering results of mechanical characterization of butt joints previously obtained, the optimization of welding condition in terms of mechanical properties and energy parameters was performed. The best condition is represented by the lower laser power and higher welding speed that corresponds to the lower heat input given to the joint.

In order to reduce the material costs of white-goods made of stainless steels, tailored constructions with unequally alloyed stainless steels shall be used. For that purpose nickel-alloyed austenitic stainless steels are supposed to be limited to zones with demanding needs for corrosions resistance, whereas nickel-free ferritic stainless steels provide an attractive cost-performance ratio for the remaining components of a system. Particularly the present article discusses the corrosion performance of austenitic-ferritic connections, welded with high-power disc lasers at accelerated feed rates, as a function of the shielding gas composition and the surface condition.

New optical diagnostics for studying laser ablation and induced combustion for carbon materials are key to monitoring the evolving, spatial distribution of the gas plume. We are developing high speed imaging FTIR and gated ICCD imagery for materials processing, manufacture process control, and high energy laser applications. The results from two projects will be discussed. First, an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer with a 320 x 256 InSb focal plane array frames at 1.9 kHz with a spatial resolution of 1 mm and spectral resolution of up to 0.25 cm^-1. Gas phase plumes above the surface of laser-irradiated black plexiglass, fiberglass and painted thin metals have been spectrally resolved. Molecular emission from CO, CO₂, H₂O, and hydrocarbons is readily identified. A line-by-line radiative transfer model is used to derive movies for specie concentrations and temperatures. Second, excimer laser pulsed ablation of bulk graphite into low-pressure (0.05 - 1 Torr) argon generates highly ionized, high speed (M>40) plumes. A gated, intensified CCD camera with band pass filtering has been used to generate plume imagery with temporal resolution of 10ns. The Sedov-Taylor shock model characterizes the propagation of the shock front if the dimensionality of the plume is allowed to deviate from ideal spherical expansion. A drag model is more appropriate when the plume approaches extinction (~10 μs) and extends the characterization into the far field. Conversion of laser pulse energy to the shock is efficient.

We have investigated process monitoring of laser beam welding with a TruDisk disk laser to detect process faults. Additionally to monitoring laser beam welding processes by a conventional VIS camera an NIR (near-infrared) camera reveals new information. Our sensor detects thermal radiation between 1100 and 1700 nm from the weld zone, which represents surface temperatures above 1000 K. Using the thermal radiation from the process we can observe all major weld defects without auxiliary illumination. The camera is integrated in a standard TRUMPF welding optics for on-axis observation. A real-time image processing system analyzes the camera images regarding welding irregularities and delivers information to characterize the weld process and its result. Actually, we perform an online passive heat-flow thermography that uses the process itself as the heat source and that probes the thermal attributes of the seam. By this means we can detect regions of bad fusion (“false friends”) virtually during the welding process. In addition to conventional thermography we have investigated the use of ratio pyrometry by using to NIR-cameras that observe the process in two different spectral bands. By considering the pixel-per-pixel ratio the influence of surface effects it greatly reduces and we obtain images of the weld zone with an absolute temperature scale. We have compared ratio pyrometry measurements with conventional thermography.

High power fiber laser sources, with a radiation wavelength equal to about 1 μm, offer a great potential in improving the productivity and quality of thin aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys sheets cutting. This is due to their benefits that are of special interest for this application: power efficiency, beam guidance and beam quality. In this work, an overview regarding the phenomena that for different reasons affect the laser cutting of these materials was given. These phenomena include the formation of a heat affected zone, the chemical contamination, the change of corrosion resistance, the thermal reactivity, the effects of thermal conductivity, reflectivity and viscosity of molten material. The influence of processing parameters on 1 mm thick Al 1050, AZ31 and Ti6Al4V lightweight alloys were experimentally investigated and cutting performances in terms of cut quality, maximum processing speeds and severance energies were evaluated. The advantages of using 1 μm laser wavelength for thin sheets lightweight alloys cutting due to the good cut quality, high productivity and the easily delivery of the beam through the optical fiber, were demonstrated. Results showed that fiber lasers open up new solutions for cutting lightweight alloys for applications like coil sheet cutting, laser blanking, trimming and cutting-welding combination in tailor welded blanks applications.

Metal hollow sphere structures (MHSS) represent a group of advanced composite materials. A high geometric reproducibility leads to relatively constant mechanical and physical properties. Therefore MHSS combine the advantages of cellular metals without a big scattering of the material properties. Several joining technologies can be used to assemble single metallic hollow spheres to a interdependent structure like sintering, soldering and adhering. This allows adjusting of variable macroscopic attitudes. A cutting process for MHSS needs to reflect the special characteristic of the composite material. In this paper laser beam cutting is presented as an efficient technology. The small amount of heat being involved during the process results in a small heat affected zone. All investigations were done with MHSS having different macroscopic dimensions (length, width, thickness, joining technology). The experimental work was done by a CO₂-laser. The cut depth is governed by the heat input per unit length and the MHSS density. Finite element analysis was used to predict heat flux and temperature level for different geometric parameters of the spheres (diameter, wall thickness). The numerical simulation allows a detailed analysis of the physical process in the zone that is influenced by the laser beam and which can hardly be analysed by measuring technique. The models for the static and transient finite element analysis consider heat conduction and convection.

Laser propulsion in air or vacuum has been developed as a thruster technology for the attitude control of micro class satellites. Laser propulsion in water can be used as a technology for propelling underwater platform or controlling microfluid device. Laser propulsion effects in water are much better in air due to the force from laser-induced bubble in water. The target geometries will influence the propulsion effects in air. In order to investigate the influence of target geometries on laser propulsion in water, targets with/without conical cavity and hemispherical cavity are designed in this paper. The momentum I_T gained by targets and the momentum coupling coefficient C_m are investigated experimentally by high-speed photography method. It shows that the propulsion effects are better if there is a cavity on the laser irradiated surface of the target, and a hemispherical cavity works better than a conical cavity. In addition, I_T increases with the laser energy, but the increasing trend slows gradually, and C_m increases with the laser energy first, and then levels off for all four targets. These results are both due to the laser plasma shielding. In conclusion, we need design suitable target geometries and use optimal laser energy to get the best propulsion effect for controlling microfluid device or micro class satellites.

Experiments of pulse CO₂ laser produced tin plasma had been carried out. Plasma parameters of electron temperature and density measurements both in axial and radial direction had been performed from a two-dimensional time and space resolved image spectra analysis. Debris speed of laser produced plasma in various buffer gas was quantitatively estimated by means of a fast gated intensified charge coupled device imaging system. The stopping power of the hydrogen buffer gas was assessed under ambient pressure ranging from 30 to 10⁴ Pa.

A fiber profilometer is developed to measure hard-to-access areas. This system utilizes low coherence light interferometry technique to detect profiles of internal surfaces of samples. A differentiation method is employed to enhance vertical resolutions of imaging results. An auto-focusing scheme is proposed to obtain an optimized lateral resolution. The performance of the profilometer system is demonstrated by experimental studies.

In laser ablation cutting, irradiation of high-intense laser beams causes ejection of molten and evaporated material out of the cutting zone as a result of high pressure gradients, induced by expanding plasma plumes. This paper investigates highspeed laser ablation cutting of industrial grade metal sheets using high-brilliant continuous wave fiber lasers with output powers up to 5 kW. The laser beam was deflected with scan speeds up to 2700 m/min utilizing both a fast galvanometer scan system and a polygon scan system. By sharp laser beam focusing using different objectives with focal lengths ranging between 160 mm and 500 mm, small laser spot diameters between 16.5 μm and 60 μm were obtained, respectively. As a result high peak intensities between 3*108 W/cm² and 2.5*109 W/cm² were irradiated on the sample surface, and cutting kerfs with a maximum depth of 1.4 mm have been produced. In this study the impact of the processing parameters laser power, laser spot diameter, cutting speed, and number of scans on both the achievable cutting depth and the cutting edge quality was investigated. The ablation depths, the heights of the cutting burr, as well as the removed material volumes were evaluated by means of optical microscope images and cross section photographs. Finally highspeed laser ablation cutting was studied using an intensified ultra highspeed camera in order to get useful insights into the cutting process.

Oxygen-assisted laser cutting of low-carbon steel with a fiber laser is studied experimentally. The objective of the work is to find the link between the cutting quality (which is low roughness and no dross) and energy characteristics of the cutting. Cutting parameters are expressed though two dimensionless complexes, namely the Peclet number and dimensionless laser power. It is founded that for the cutting with minimal roughness, the Peclet number is of 0.35…0.4, and the contribution of the absorbed laser energy in the unit of removed material volume is 12…14 J/mm³ for sheets of 3, 5, and 10 mm. The results are compared to the data obtained for the СО₂ laser.