Comparison of High Rate Laser Ablation and Resulting Structures Using Continuous and Pulsed Single Mode Fiber Lasers

Abstract

This paper compares high rate laser ablation and resulting structures of aluminum by using both a continuous wave and a ns-pulsed single mode fiber laser of high average laser power. Two different scan technologies were applied for fast deflection of the laser beams. In this work, 2.5D laser processing was studied by using a high aperture galvanometer scanner with a maximum scan speed of 18 m/s. By contrast, considerably higher scan speeds up to 1,000 m/s were achieved by using the in-house developed polygon scanner system. The ablation rates and the processing rates per unit area were analyzed by means of the depths of line-scan ablation tracks and laser processed cavities. In addition, SEM photograph of the machining samples will be presented in order to evaluate the machining quality. Finally the feasibility of this high rate technology for industrial application is demonstrated by machining examples.