Industrial grade fiber-coupled laser systems delivering ultrashort high-power pulses for micromachining

Sebastian Pricking; Petra Welp; Johannes Overbuschmann; Sebastian Nutsch; Raphael Gebs; Robert Fleischhaker; Jochen Kleinbauer; Martin Wolf; Aleksander Budnicki; Dirk H. Sutter; Alexander Killi; Michael Mielke

doi:10.1117/12.2213356

18 March 2016 Industrial grade fiber-coupled laser systems delivering ultrashort high-power pulses for micromachining

Sebastian Pricking, Petra Welp, Johannes Overbuschmann, Sebastian Nutsch, Raphael Gebs, Robert Fleischhaker, Jochen Kleinbauer, Martin Wolf, Aleksander Budnicki, Dirk H. Sutter, Alexander Killi, Michael Mielke

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9741, High-Power Laser Materials Processing: Lasers, Beam Delivery, Diagnostics, and Applications V; 974109 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213356
Event: SPIE LASE, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We report on an industrial fiber-delivered laser system producing ultra-short pulses in the range of a few picoseconds down to a few hundred femtoseconds with high average power suitable for high-precision micromachining. The delivery fiber is a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber with a Kagomé shaped lattice and a hypocycloid core wall enabling the guiding of laser radiation over several meters with exceptionally low losses and preservation of high beam quality (M2<1.3). The mode-matching and coupling optics are integrated into the laser head providing a compact footprint without the need for external boxes. The laser head is carefully designed regarding its thermo-mechanical properties to allow a highly reliable coupling stability. The exchangeable delivery fiber is packaged using Trumpf’s well established LLK-D connectors which offer a very high mechanical precision, the possibility to add water cooling, as well as full featured safety functions. The fiber is hermetically sealed and protected by a robust but flexible shield providing bend protection and break detection. We show the linear and nonlinear optical properties of the transported laser radiation and discuss its feasibility for pulse compression. Measurements are supported by simulation of pulse propagation by solving the nonlinear Schrödinger equation implementing the split-step Fourier method. In addition, mode properties are measured and confirmed by finite element method simulations. The presented industrial laser system offers the known advantages of ultra-short pulses combined with the flexibility of fiber delivery yielding a versatile tool perfectly suitable for all kinds of industrial micromachining applications.

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Sebastian Pricking, Petra Welp, Johannes Overbuschmann, Sebastian Nutsch, Raphael Gebs, Robert Fleischhaker, Jochen Kleinbauer, Martin Wolf, Aleksander Budnicki, Dirk H. Sutter, Alexander Killi, and Michael Mielke "Industrial grade fiber-coupled laser systems delivering ultrashort high-power pulses for micromachining", Proc. SPIE 9741, High-Power Laser Materials Processing: Lasers, Beam Delivery, Diagnostics, and Applications V, 974109 (18 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213356

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