Product Code: ICA10_105

Characteristics of Disk Laser-Induced Plasma
Authors:
Seung Lee, University of Michigan; Ann Arbor MI USA
Jyoti Mazumder, University of Michigan; Ann Arbor MI USA
Presented at ICALEO 2010

Disk laser is being used as a noble source in laser material processing area due to the high quality of the beam. In laser material interaction field, laser induced plasma has been an interesting part because this inevitable phenomenon in the area is closely related with energy transfer. This plasma plume can diverge or converge the focusing laser beam. Absorption in the plasma block the energy transfer from the laser beam to the target material. On the other hand converging beam enhance the energy transfer. Therefore, several factors such as absorption, scattering effect should be considered for characterizations of the plasma plumes induced by laser. Its characteristics are quite different between different lasers. In this paper, two different plasma plumes, induced by a CO2 laser and a disk laser are compared respectively. Galvanized sheet metals are used as target materials for laser welding experiments. Spectroscopic studies have been conducted focusing on the zinc emission lines to estimate the electron temperature.