Product Code: ICA10_M506

Laser-Induced Plasma Investigations during Material Processing
Authors:
David Diego-Vallejo, Technische Universitat Berlin, Institut fur Optik und Atomare Physik; Berlin Germany
David Ashkenasi, Laser und Medizin-Technologie Berlin; Berlin Germany
Hans Joachim Eichler, Technical University of Berlin, Optics Institute; Berlin Germany
Gerd Illing, Laser und Medizin-Technologie Berlin GmbH; Berlin Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2010

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a versatile analytical tool used to determine sample compositions, has recently been applied to monitor and control of laser material processing. By observing the induced plasma during laser machining, information about e.g. the amount of ablated material is obtained, and thus an insight of the current processing stage can be estimated. The aim of this project is to utilize the ablation plasma as a potential monitoring signal during laser material processing. This may allow for an improvement in the processing quality and feed rate by means of spectroscopic analysis, based on the fact that plasma characteristics depend on the properties of the ablated surface and laser parameters. As an example, spectrograms are acquired to develop a controlling strategy for optimizing the focus position on the work-piece. Another concept is followed to ensure a laser-induced removal of a specific layer compound on a layer system, where the analysis of the plasma spectrogram can monitor the selectivity.