Product Code: ICA10_M604

Pulse Shape Control of a MOPA Fiber Laser for Marking of Stainless Steel and Other Materials
Authors:
Sami Hendow, Multiwave Photonics, R. Eng.; Maia Portugal
Paulo T. Guerreiro, Multiwave Photonics, R. Eng.; Maia Portugal
Niels Schilling, Fraunhofer Institute IWS Dresden; Dresden Germany
Jan Rabe, Fraunhofer Institute IWS Dresden; Dresden Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2010

MOPA Fiber laser is used to demonstrate controlled ablation of metals, silicon and thin film materials using both the single-pulse as well as double-pulse laser format. Double pulsing is where the energy of one pulse is split into two succeding pulses. Ablation of silicon, metals and ceramic materials is also shown to be dependent on pulse peak power and the material's nonlinear properties, while deposited pulse energy is held constant. High peak powers are shown to lead to shallow penetration depths, while longer pulses contribute to heating and melting. The MOPA is operated with pulse widths from 10ns to 200ns and pulse peak powers up to 10kW, and pulse energy up to 0.5mJ. High beam quality of M2 < 1.2 is maintained at all times.