Effects of processing parameters on direct laser sintering of multicomponent Cu based metal powder

Abstract

Direct laser sintering of a multicomponent Cu based metal powder was successfully processed through the mechanism of liquid phase sintering with partial melting of the powder. The effects of processing parameters such as laser power, scan speed, scan line spacing and layer thickness on the densification and microstructural evolution of the laser sintered powder were investigated. It was found that with increasing laser power or decreasing scan speed, the density of the sintered parts increased and the microstructures became denser. However, the combination of higher laser powers (>400 W) and higher scan speeds (≥0·06 ms^?1) gave rise to 'balling' effect. A successive transition from discontinuous scan tracks to coherently joined ones occurs with decreasing scan line spacing. Lowering the thickness of the powder layer promises an improvement in bonding coherence between sintered layers. A single factor termed 'energy density by volume' is defined to evaluate the combined effect of various processing parameters on the density of laser sintered powder. With increasing the energy density by volume up to ～0·16 kJ mm^?3, the densification rate is relatively high. However, with intensifying the energy density over ～0·23 kJ mm^?3, the mechanism of particle bonding may change into full melting/solidification, leading to a decrease in the sintered density.     

Experimental and theoretical study of a laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched intracavity-frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO4/KTP red laser with V:YAG saturable absorber

A laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched intracavity-frequency-doubled Nd:GdVO4/KTP red laser with V:YAG saturable absorber is realized in a V-type resonator. The dependences of the pulse repetition rate, pulse width, single-pulse energy, and peak power on the incident pump power are measured and contrasted. By assuming the intracavity photon density and the initial population-inversion density to be Gaussian spatial distributions, the space-dependent rate equations of this laser are given. The numerical solutions of the rate equations are consistent with the experimental results. In order to optimize the described system, the variations of the pulse width, peak power, single-pulse energy, and laser efficiency with the initial transmission of the saturable absorber and the ratio of the laser beam radius to the pump beam radius are also calculated, respectively.     

Compression of pulse duration in a laser-diode, end-pumped, double Q-switched laser

By considering the Guassian transversal distribution of intracavity photon density and the longitudinal distribution of photon density along the cavity axis as well as the influence of the turn-off time of the acousto-optic Q switch, we introduce the coupled rate equations of a laser-diode, end-pumped, double Q-switched laser with an acousto-optic modulator and GaAs saturable absorber. In addition the thermal effect of the gain medium is taken into account. These coupled rate equations are solved numerically, and the dependence of pulse width on incident pump power at different pulse repetition rates is obtained for the generated output pulses. It is shown that the pulse duration is obviously shorter in contrast to the actively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with an acoustic-optic modulator, and the maximum compression ratio of the pulse width is more than 60%. In the experiment a laser-diode, end-pumped, double Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with both an acousto-optic modulator and GaAs is realized, and the experimental results agree with the numerical solutions.     

Laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 green laser with periodically poled KTP and GaAs saturable absorber

A laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄ green laser with periodically poled KTP (PPKTP) and GaAs saturable absorber has been realized. The dependences of pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, pulse width and peak power on incident pump power for the generated-green-light pulses are measured. At the maximum incident pump power of 4.1 W, the maximum average output power of 113 mW is obtained, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 2.8%. At the same pump power, stable green laser pulses of duration of 44.6 ns and energy of 0.28 µJ are generated at a repetition rate of 403.4 kHz. The coupling wave rate equations for a passively Q-switched laser are also given and the numerical solutions agree with the experimental results.     

Pump beam waist-dependent pulse energy generation in Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG passively Q-switched microchip laser

Abstract

The incident pump beam waist-dependent pulse energy generation in Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite crystal passively Q-switched microchip laser has been investigated experimentally and theoretically by moving the Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite crystal along the pump beam direction. Highest pulse energy of 0.4 mJ has been generated when the Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite crystal is moved about 6 mm away from the focused pump beam waist. Laser pulses with pulse width of 1.7 ns and peak power of over 235 kW have been achieved. The theoretically calculated effective laser beam area at different positions of Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite crystal along the pump beam direction is in good agreement with the experimental results. The highest peak power can be generated by adjusting the pump beam waist incident on the Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG composite crystal to optimize the effective laser beam area in passively Q-switched microchip laser.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 green laser with a periodically poled KTP and Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber

A diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 green laser with a periodically poled KTP and Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber is realized. The dependences of pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, pulse width, and peak power on incident pump power are measured for the generated green-light pulses. A rate-equation model is introduced to theoretically analyze the results obtained in the experiment, in which the spatial distribution of the intracavity photon density is taken into account. The numerical solutions of the rate equations agree with the experimental results.     

Frequency Spectral Measurements of a Pulsed,TE CO2

Abstract

Experimental measurements of the intra-pulse chirp and temporal coherence from a Joule class TE CO₂ laser incorporating LAWS transmitter design features are presented. Digitized quadrature data (I and Q) from our ground-based coherent Doppler lidar system utilizing return signals off a hard target in the telescope far field are processed using fast Fourier transform and pulse pair techniques to obtain laser pulse frequency spectral components (offset frequency and spectral width) and high-resolution (～ 50 ns/sample) frequency chirp profiles. Less than 300 kHz of frequency chirp is observed in the first 3·5 μs of the laser pulse which contains approximately 90% of the pulse energy. Spectral width of the laser pulse, including both chirp and transform limited components, are measured to be less than 300 kHz full width at half maximum.     

Analysis of a diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 self-stimulating Raman laser

This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results of a laser diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄ self-Raman laser in detail. In the experiment, by using two Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystals with different initial transmissions as the saturable absorber, using Nd:GdVO₄ as the gain medium and Raman medium simultaneously, the passively Q-switched operation of the Nd:GdVO₄ self-Raman laser at 1176 nm was investigated. The average power, pulse energy, pulse width and pulse repetition rate with respect to the incident pump power were measured. The obtained maximum output average power is 244.6 mW with respect to incident power of 5.7 W and the corresponding conversion efficiency is 4.3%. In the theoretical part, we used the rate equations to obtain the theoretical results. In the rate equations, the Gaussian distributions of the intracavity photon densities of the fundamental and Raman lasers and the initial population-inversion density were taken into account, and the ground-state population density of the saturable absorber at t = 0 is assumed to be uniform. The obtained theoretical results were in agreement with the experimental results on the whole.     

Tungsten tri-oxide (WO3) film absorber for generating Q-switched pulses in erbium laser

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a new type of passive saturable absorber (SA) made of transition metal oxide (TMO) embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The Tungsten trioxide (WO₃)-PVA SA is placed in an erbium-doped fibre laser cavity to produce Q-switched pulses operating at 1562.82?nm. The pulse laser starts to manifest at the threshold pump power of 40?mW and continues to exist until the maximum pump power of 195?mW. Within that pump power range, its pulse energy, repetition rate and pulse width vary from 98 to 142.85?nJ, 29.86 to 56.7?kHz and 5.032 to 1.85?µs, respectively. The pulse train is stable with a signal to noise ratio of 70?dB. This is the first demonstration of a Q-switched laser using such a SA.     

Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror passively Q-switched fiber laser near 2 μm

A passively Q-switched fiber laser near 2?μm is achieved with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) as a saturable absorber. Stable Q-switched pulses are generated from an extremely compact setup with a central wavelength of 1958.2?nm. Under the bidirectional pump configuration, the repetition rate of the fiber laser can be widely tuned from 20 to 80?kHz by increasing the pump power at the same time the pulse width decreases from 1?μs to 490?ns. When the incident pump power is 1.3?W, the average output power, the pulse repetition rate, the pulse width, and the highest single pulse energy are 91?mW, 80?kHz, 490?ns, and 1.14?μJ, respectively. To further optimize the system configuration, the pulse width can be reduced to 362?ns when the cavity length is reduced.     

Model of the nonlinear operation of a laser with a gaussian mirror

Abstract

In this paper a semi-classical model of the nonlinear operation of a laser is extended to describe a laser with a Gaussian mirror. Modified nonlinear self-consistent equations including transverse and longitudinal field dependence, gain saturation, spatial hole burning and nonlinear dispersion effects are derived. With the help of an energy theorem an approximate solution for steady-state single mode operation is presented, which relates the small signal gain to the output power and the laser system characteristic parameters. The laser output power characteristics are presented for various cavity configurations, especially, revealing an influence of the Gaussian mirror parameter on the power efficiency of the laser.     

The Effect of Laser Power,Traverse Velocity and Spot Size on the Peel Resistance of a Polypropylene/Adhesive Bond

The mean peel resistance force achieved with respect to variation in the laser power, incident spot traverse velocity and incident spot diameter between linear low density polyethylene film backed by a thin commercial adhesive coating that were bonded to a polypropylene (PP) substrate via thermal activation provided by a 27W CO₂ laser is discussed in this work. The results gathered for this work have been used to generate a novel empirical tool that predicts the CO₂ laser power required to achieve a viable adhesive bond for this material combination. This predictive tool will enable the packaging industry to achieve markedly increased financial yield, process efficiency, reduced material waste and process flexibility. A laser spot size‐dependent linear increase in laser line energy was necessary for this material combination, suggesting the minimal impact of thermal strain rate. Moreover, a high level of repeatability around this threshold laser line energy was indicated, suggesting that laser‐activated adhesive bonding of such polymer films is viable. The adhesion between the material combination trialled here responded linearly to thermal load. In particular, when using the smallest diameter laser spot, it is proposed that the resulting high irradiance caused film or adhesive material damage, thus resulting in reduced peel resistance force. The experimental work conducted indicated that the processing window of an incident CO₂ laser spot increases with respect to spot diameter, simultaneously yielding greater bond stability in the face of short‐term laser variance. © 2015 The Authors. Packaging Technology and Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

500 Hz ultraviolet dye laser with pulse energy 1.7 mJ and potential for PLIF imaging

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a high-pulse-energy frequency-doubled ultraviolet dye laser operating at a repetition rate of 500?Hz. The pump source is a laser-diode side-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a pulse energy of 29?mJ at 532?nm. A master oscillator power amplifier is employed to amplify the output pulse of the dye laser to 8.1?mJ at 566?nm, and by frequency doubling with BBO crystal a pulse energy of 1.7?mJ at 283?nm is achieved with a pulse width of 8?ns. This is more than four times the largest reported pulse energies generated by other fixed-frequency dye lasers when operating at repetition rates of more than 1?kHz. The conversion efficiency and stability of dye laser are discussed, which show the potential for high-speed laser diagnostics in the fields of combustion and turbulent flow detection.     

Energy Transfer Modes in Pulsed Laser Seam Welding

A systematic parametric study has been made in pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding to understand the energy transfer modes. Four different energy transfer zones, namely conduction, transition, penetration, and keyhole, have been identified. The traditional classification of energy transfer modes based on the power density value of 10⁶ W/cm² is not strictly applicable as the transfer mode varies with pulse duration. The threshold power density to form keyhole is not constant, but the threshold energy density has been found to be invariant around 2.4 kJ/cm². The pulse duration has been optimized to be of about 8 ms to achieve welds of higher aspect ratio.     

超薄不锈钢片的微激光焊接工艺研究

采用微型脉冲激光实现了0.2mm厚321不锈钢片的对接焊,并通过正交优化设计对工艺参数进行了优化,研究了工艺参数对焊接接头微观形貌及组织的影响。结果表明,焊接接头获得最大抗拉力的最优工艺参数是脉冲功率百分比为15、脉冲频率为5Hz、脉冲宽度为2.1ms,此时焊接接头的承载能力达到母材的95%。当微激光焊的脉冲能量过大时会产生热量的积累、导致焊缝发生烧穿,当脉冲宽度较小时激光脉冲的熔透能力较弱、导致焊缝未焊透,这两者都会导致焊接接头的承载能力较差。承载能力较高的焊接接头其显微组织由焊缝中心区的等轴晶和焊缝边缘细小的柱状晶组成。     

Laser-diode pumped passively Q-switched Nd3+:NaY(WO4)2 laser with Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber

A laser-diode pumped passively Q-switched new type crystal Nd³⁺:NaY(WO₄)₂ (known as Nd:NYW) laser with Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber has been realized. The dependence of pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, pulse width, and peak power on pump power for different small-signal transmission of Cr⁴⁺:YAG are measured. The coupled rate equations are used to simulate the Q-switched process of laser, and the numerical solutions agree with the experimental results.     

Generation of Steady-state Ultrashort Laser Pulses Based on a Novel Nonlinear Michelson Interferometer

Abstract

A pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser mode locked by a novel nonlinear Michelson interferometer, where one branch contains a frequency-doubling potassium titanyl orthophosphate crystal, is reported for the first time. Under the optimal experimental condition, shorter than 10 ps average pulse width at 1·06 μm and up to 95% reproducibility of mode locking can be obtained, and the stability of output energy is about 7·5%. Finally, the reason why its mode-locking output characteristics have been significantly improved is also analysed in this paper.     

High-repetition rate Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with a composite semiconductor absorber

A diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser passively Q switched by a semiconductor absorber is demonstrated. The Q-switched operation of the laser has an average output power of 135 mW with a 1.6 W incident pump power. The minimum pulse width is measured to be about 8.3 ns with a repetition rate of 2 MHz. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a solid-state laser passively Q-switched by such a composite semiconductor absorber.     

Optimization of doubly Q-switched lasers with both an acousto-optic modulator and a GaAs saturable absorber

A doubly Q-switched laser with both an acousto-optic (AO) modulator and a GaAs saturable absorber can obtain a more symmetric and shorter pulse with high pulse peak power, which has been experimentally proved. The key parameters of an optimally coupled doubly Q-switched laser with both an AO modulator and a GaAs saturable absorber are determined, and a group of general curves are generated for what we believe is the first time, when the single-photon absorption (SPA) and two-photon absorption (TPA) processes of GaAs are combined, and the Gaussian spatial distributions of the intracavity photon density and the initial population-inversion density as well as the influence of the AO Q-switch are considered. These key parameters include the optimal normalized coupling parameter, the optimal normalized GaAs saturable absorber parameters, and the normalized parameters of the AO Q-switch, which can maximize the output energy. Meanwhile, the corresponding normalized energy, the normalized peak power, and the normalized pulse width are given. The curves clearly show the dependence of the optimal key parameters on the parameters of the gain medium, the GaAs saturable absorber, the AO Q-switch, and the resonator. Sample calculations for a diode-pumped Nd3+:YVO4 laser with both an AO modulator and a GaAs saturable absorber are presented to demonstrate the use of the curves and the relevant formulas.     

脉冲宽度对激光熔覆FeSiB涂层组织与硬度的影响

以FeSiB非晶带材为熔覆材料,采用激光熔覆在低碳钢表面制备高致密度涂层,利用光学显微镜(OM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、显微硬度仪等研究不同脉冲宽度对激光熔覆涂层成形、组织特征及硬度的影响。结果表明:随脉冲宽度增大,涂层稀释率升高;裂纹倾向增加,裂纹源萌生由表面到界面处;晶化程度升高,结晶相为α-Fe,Fe_2B和Fe_3Si;熔合区宽度增大,柱状晶沿外延生长趋势更大;显微硬度先增加后减小。当脉冲宽度为3.2ms时,涂层结构致密,无孔洞缺陷,界面呈良好的冶金结合,稀释率低,为23.2%,涂层平均显微硬度达1192HV,约为基材的10倍。