Laser operation in bursts of pulses has recently attracted a lot of attention, as high average powers and pulse energies have become available. Bursts of pulses have become a mean to achieve different laser-matter interaction regimes with a single laser source. We have used an ultra-short pulse laser source in combination with an external array of birefringent crystals to generate near-THz bursts of single-picosecond pulses. Variability of the setup and high single pulse energy were exploited to generate bursts of up to 16 pulses at different delays between consecutive pulses. The experimental setup was applied for surface processing of different industrially relevant materials, including metals, ceramics, and polyimides. The goal of this study was to find out if the reduced ablation thresholds using near-THz bursts of pulses as reported in previous studies of other group could be utilized for increased ablation efficiency. Our findings show that near-THz bursts of pulses interact with materials in a similar fashion as a single, albeit longer, pulse would. We observed a clear trend on all the tested materials, showing a declining ablation efficiency with increasing total burst duration at a fixed pulse repetition frequency. Findings contradict the results of other groups concluding on an improved efficiency of laser to material energy transfer using bursts at near-THz intra-burst repetition rates. A simple model describing ablation efficiency decline with pulse prolongation...
COBISS.SI-ID: 16467995
Modern electronics facilitate the need for fast, efficient, and reliable methods for direct laser-based surface engineering of conductive thin film materials on flexible substrates. Recent advances in pulsed laser source development only incrementally increased the processing speeds, as those are limited by the available scanning systems. Our goal was to combine a high pulse repetition frequency high-power pulse-on-demand fiber laser source with an ultra-fast resonant scanner to achieve high throughput surface engineering. The enabling factor to compensate a resonant scanner's sinusoidal movement were the laser's intrinsic pulse-on-demand capabilities beyond simple pulse picking solutions. he high temporal resolution at full laser power was exploited for spatially controlled surface texturing, allowing a minimally 3 [micro]m positioning accuracy throughout the scanner's range at up to 60 m/s scan speed with a 10 [micro]m laser spot size. We applied the setup to processing of ITO and metallic films on flexible substrates for touchscreens, position sensors, or EM shielding. Surface modification and patterning of the conductive layer was successfully demonstrated while keeping the underlying surface intact. We employed a simple laser ablation model in comparison to the experimental data to improve the understanding of the ablation process. The resulting surface topography was observed and analysed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 17002523
Theoretical and experimental evaluation of the photodarkening effect as a heat source in ytterbium doped fibers is presented. An additional non-radiative decay channel that opens after photodarkening the fiber is identified via fluorescence lifetime reduction and as an additional heat source proportional to inversion. It is included in the heat source model which was tested on a core-pumped fiber amplifiers. High temperature elevation at low pump powers shows potential heat-related problems in high inversion systems that are more susceptible to photodarkening.
COBISS.SI-ID: 15925531
A highly adaptable fiber laser with pulse-on-demand and precision pulse-duration tuning is presented. It is based on a compact optical design combining the gain-switching technique with the all-fiber master oscillator and pump-recovery amplifier architecture. The approach of laser-pulse stability control by compensation pumping and pulse-duration control by changing the pump wavelength are introduced. In order to prove the concept, a laser setup capable of producing laser pulses with an average power of up to 30 W and a peak power of approximately 1 kW at an improved efficiency and an arbitrary repetition rate is presented.
COBISS.SI-ID: 16599835
The increase in complex workpieces with changing geometries demands advanced control algorithms in order to achieve stable welding regimes. Usually, many experiments are required to identify and confirm the correct welding parameters. We present a method for controlling laser power in a remote laser welding system with a convolutional neural network (CNN) via a PID controller, based on optical triangulation feedback. AISI 304 metal sheets with a cumulative thickness of 1.5 mm were used. A total accuracy of 94% was achieved for CNN models on the test datasets. The rise time of the controller to achieve full penetration was less than 1.0 s from the start of welding. The Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) method was used to further understand the decision making of the model. It was determined that the CNN focuses mainly on the area of the interaction zone and can act accordingly if this interaction zone changes in size. Based on additional testing, we proposed improvements to increase overall controller performance and response time by implementing a feed-forward approach at the beginning of welding.
COBISS.SI-ID: 39691267