Analysis of basic processes inside the keyhole during deep penetration ND-YAG CW laser welding

During laser welding, the keyhole is generated by the recoil pressure induced by the evaporation processes occurring mainly on the front keyhole wall (KW). In order to characterize the evaporation process, we have measured this recoil pressure by using a plume deflection technique, where the plume generated for static conditions (i. e. with no sample displacement) is deflected by a transverse side gas jet. From the measurement of the plume deflection angle, the recoil pressure can be determined as a function of incident intensity and sample material. From these data one can estimate the pressure generated on the front KW, during laser welding. Therefore, the corresponding dynamic pressure exerted by the vapor plume expansion on the rear KW, in contact with the melt pool, can be also estimated. These pressures appear to be in close agreement with those generated by an additional side jet that has been used in previous experiments, for stabilizing the observed melt pool oscillations or fluctuations.

Laser-vapour interaction in high-power cw Nd:YAG laser welding

During high-power cw Nd:YAG laser welding a vapour plume is formed containing vaporised material ejected from the keyhole. Spectroscopic studies of the vapour emission have demonstrated that the vapour can be considered as thermally excited gas with a stable temperature (less than 3000K), not as partially ionised plasma. In this paper, a review of temperatures in the vapour plume is presented. The difficulties in the analysis of the plume spectroscopic results are reviewed and explained. It is shown that particles present in the vapour interact with the laser beam, attenuating it. The attenuation can be calculated with Mie scattering theory, however, vaporisation and particle formation also both play a major role in this process. The laser beam is also defocused due to the scattering part of the attenuation mechanism, changing the energy density in the laser beam. Methods for mitigating the effects of the laser beam-vapour interaction, using control gases, are presented together with their advantages and disadvantages. This 'plume control' has two complementary roles: firstly, the gas must divert the vapour plume from out of the laser beam path, preventing the attenuation. Secondly, the gas has to stabilise the front wall of the keyhole, to prevent porosity formation.

A Diode-Side-Pumped Dynamic Fundamental Mode Nd:YAG Laser

A fundamental mode Nd YAG laser is experimentally demonstrated with a stagger pumped laser module and a special resonator. The rod is pumped symmetrically by staggered bar modules. A dynamic fundamental mode is achieved with the special resonator under different pump levels. A maximal continuous wave output of 61 W (M-2 = 1.4) is achieved with a single rod. An average output of 47 W, pulse width of 54 ns, pulse energy of 4.7 mJ and peak power of 87 kW are obtained under the Q-switched operation of 10 kHz.

Diode-end-pumped passively mode-locked ceramic Nd : YAG Laser with a semiconductor saturable mirror

We report on a diode- pumped CW passively mode locked ceramic Nd: YAG laser with SESAM ( semiconductor saturable absorber mirror), wavelength 1064nm. At a pump power of 7.6w, the pulse width was estimated to be similar to 8.3ps with repetition rate similar to 130MHz and the average output power was 1.59w. To our knowledge, this was the first demonstration that ceramic Nd: YAG was used for diode pumped CW passively mode locking. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd : YAG laser with an LT-GaAs

Simultaneous Q-switching and mode-locking (QML) is accomplished in a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser using low-temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) as the saturable absorber, which also acts as an output coupler at the same time. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope increased from 25 to 40 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.2 to 6.9 W. The mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of 714 MHz. A maximum average output power of 770 mW was obtained. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

A passively mode-locked diode-end-pumped Nd : YAG laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition

We report the experimental results of a mode-locked diode-end-pumped Nd:YAG laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) from which we achieved a 10 ps pulse duration at 150 MHz repetition rate. The SESAM was grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition at low temperature. The recovery time was measured to be 0.5 ps, indicating the potential pulse compression to sub-picoseconds.

LD side-pumped high beam quality passive Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser based on SESAM

We report a LD side-pumped fundamental-mode (Mx(2) = 1.35 and My(2) = 1.27) passive Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). At a pump current of 12.5 A, the average output power of 5.68 W with 80 kHz repetition rate and 2 mu s pulse width of the Q-switched envelope was generated. The repetition rate of the mode-locked pulse within the Q-switched envelope of 88 MHz was achieved.

Comparative studies of semiconductor saturable absorber mirror mode-locking dynamics in pulsed diode-end-pumped picosecond Nd:GdVO4 and Nd:YAG lasers

Ultrashort pulses were generated in passively mode-locked Nd:YAG and Nd:GdVO4 lasers pumped by a pulsed laser diode with 10-Hz repetition rate. Stable mode-locked pulse trains were produced with the pulse width of 10 ps. The evolution of the mode-locked pulse was observed in the experiment and was discussed in detail. Comparing the pulse evolutions of Nd:YAG and Nd:GdVO4 lasers, we found that the buildup time of the steady-state mode-locking with semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) was relevant to the upper-state lifetime and the emission cross-section of the gain medium.

Flash-lamp-pumped picosecond Nd:YAG regenerative amplifier

A flash-lamp-pumped Nd

电光腔倒空激光二极管抽运Nd∶YAG锁模激光器

设计了一个简单的直腔,将电光腔倒空与激光二极管端面抽运Nd∶YAG半导体可饱和吸收镜锁模激光器结合,实现了锁模脉冲的产生、放大和输出。在连续抽运功率5 W的条件下,获得了脉冲宽度为11 ps的锁模单脉冲输出和脉冲宽度为200 ns的调Q脉冲输出,腔倒空单脉冲能量为30 nJ,重复频率为10 Hz。连续锁模运转时单个锁模脉冲的能量约为2 nJ,利用腔倒空将单脉冲的能量提高了15 倍左右。文章详细讨论了腔倒空脉冲及调Q脉冲的产生机理,并分析了加在电光晶体上的高压电脉冲以及偏振片的偏振度对腔倒空脉冲及调Q脉冲的影响。

激光二极管侧面抽运Nd∶YAG锁模激光器的研究

利用谐振腔的稳定条件对激光二极管侧面抽运的Nd∶YAG锁模直腔的稳区特性和谐振腔内的光斑分布进行了分析。根据对腔参量的分析，选取合适的腔参量设计了一个简单的侧面抽运直腔，该谐振腔腔形简单，没有像散，振荡光模式好，有利于激光器的锁模运转。实验中采用国内自行研制的半导体可饱和吸收镜，实现了激光二极管侧面抽运半导体可饱和吸收镜锁模Nd∶YAG激光器的连续锁模运转，平均输出功率为2 W，锁模脉冲宽度为10 ps,重复频率为100 MHz。结合实验结果进一步讨论了半导体可饱和吸收镜的一些参量如饱和恢复时间、调制深度等对实现稳定连续锁模的影响。

连续波500 W全固态Nd∶YAG激光器研究

研制了全国产化全固态半导体激光器(LD)抽运模块，Nd∶YAG激光输出功率达500 W。介绍了优化抽运模块结构参数的程度。从增益分布特性等方面，介绍了研究其输入-输出功率特性的实验装置，随着抽运功率的增加，Nd∶YAG激光输出以斜率效率47%线性增加，最大输出功率达到575 W，光-光转换效率达26.1%。采用He-Ne激光探测法实验测量了该抽运模块中的热透镜效应。通过测量热焦距，分析了其热透镜效应