Laser-induced thermal stresses on steel surface

In laser heat treatment of steels, a thin surface layer of austenite forms during heating and subsequent phase change process in the cooling period. However, thermal stress develops due to high-temperature gradient attainment in the surface vicinity which in turn results in microcrack development at the surface. The present study is carried out to compute the temperature profiles due to step input pulse laser radiation and determine the resulting thermal stresses. The study is extended to include three-step input pulses having the same energy content. This provides the comparison for the influence of the pulse length on the resulting thermal stresses. To validate the theoretical predictions, an experiment is conducted to irradiate the AISI 4142 steel surface by an Nd–YAG laser. Microphotography and EDS analysis of the heated regions are carried out. It is found that considerable thermal stress is eveloped at the workpiece surface due to attainment of high-temperature gradient in this region. In addition, microcracks are observed at the surface of the irradiated spot.     

Laser heating of semi-infinite solid with consecutive pulses: Influence of materaial properties on temperature field

The heating of solid surfaces using consecutive laser pulses is studied and the temperature field inside slabs with different thermal properties is predicted. A Gaussian beam intensity distribution is assumed at the irradiated surface and axisymmetric heating situation is accommodated in the numerical simulations. The materials selected include titanium, stainless steel, tantalum, nickel, and aluminum. A control volume approach is introduced to discretize the governing equation of heat transfer. It is found that temperature rise in the early heating period is higher than that in the later heating period. The temperature difference between two consecutive pulses is higher in the heating cycle than that corresponding to the cooling cycle of the consecutive pulses.     

Temperature profiles modeling in IR optical components during high power laser irradiation

In this paper the temperature profiles of heat propagation in homogeneous IR optical components during irradiation with a high power laser (e.g. CO₂ laser) having different cross-section power distributions are examined. A mathematical model to calculate the temperature variation was developed, and the analytical solution for the heat equation was found. The method is based on the integral transform techniques applied to the partial differential equation of heat conduction in solids. Thermal profiles are plotted as functions of the sample dimensions and exposure time, for laser beams operating in TEM₀₁ and TEM₃₀ modes. Our results indicate that: (i) temperature profile has an angular dependence; (ii) high temperatures can be achieved in the sample center, even in the situations when the laser beam has zero power densities in this point; and (iii) the temperature profile depends strongly on the heat transfer coefficient.     

Optodynamic study of multiple pulses micro drilling

This paper describes an analysis of pulsed lasers micro-drilling of different metals. Study focuses to an optodynamic phenomenon which appears as thermal effects induced by laser light pulses and leads to dynamic process manifested as ultrasonic shock waves propagating into the sample material. The shock waves are detected by a non-contact optical method by using arm compensated Michelson. Monitoring of the main parameters of the micro drilling such as material ablation rate and efficiency was realized by analysis of the optodynamic signals. The process is characterized by decreasing ablation rate that leads to the finite hole depth. The experimental part of study comprehends a comparison between various metals. In order to describe decreasing ablation rate a theoretical model based on the energy balance is proposed. It considers the energy/heat transfer from the laser beam to the material and predicts a decreasing drilling rate with an increasing number of successive laser pulses. According to the proposed model, the finite depth of the hole appears as a consequence of the increasing surface area through which the energy of the laser beam is conducted away to the material around the processed area. Decreasing ablation rate and the finite hole depth predicted by model were in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Metal thin film ablation with femtosecond pulsed laser

Micromachining thin metal films coated on glass are widely used to repair semiconductor masks and to fabricate optoelectrical and MEMS devices. The interaction of lasers and materials must be understood in order to achieve efficient micromachining. This work investigates the morphology of thin metal films after machining with femtosecond laser ablation using about 1 μm diameter laser beam. The effect of the film thickness on the results is analyzed by comparing experimental images with data obtained using a two-temperature heat transfer model. The experiment was conducted using a high numerical aperture objective lens and a temporal pulse width of 220 fs on 200- and 500-nm-thick chromium films. The resulting surface morphology after machining was due to the thermal incubation effect, low thermal diffusivity of the glass substrate, and thermodynamic flow of the metal induced by volumetric evaporation. A Fraunhofer diffraction pattern was found in the 500-nm-thick film, and a ripple parallel to the direction of the laser light was observed after a few multiple laser shots. These results are useful for applications requiring micro- or nano-sized machining.     

In-situ study of Ag nanoparticle hydrosol optical spectra evolution during laser ablation/fragmentation

The results of in-situ monitoring of a laser fragmentation process of a largely polydisperse and morphologically heterogeneous citrate-reduced Ag hydrosol containing a fraction of Ag nanowires are presented. The laser fragmentation was performed using several wavelengths of the incident laser pulses (1064, 532 and 355 nm). Surface plasmon extinction spectra monitoring the nanoparticle fragmentation process were acquired pulse by pulse and related to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and statistical TEM image analysis of Ag nanoparticles collected in selected stages of the fragmentation. It was found that, due to different interactions of the laser pulses of various wavelengths with a specific fraction of the Ag nanoparticles in the hydrosol, the course of the fragmentation process depends on the wavelength, leading to different size distributions of the nanoparticles in the resulting hydrosol. The laser pulses of 532 nm wavelength are the most effective for the fragmentation process of the citrate-reduced Ag hydrosol, yielding the narrowest size distribution and the smallest mean radius of the Ag nanoparticles. PACS 81.07.-b; 73.21.-b; 81.16.-c     

短脉冲激光对硅基探测器的热作用模型选择

从傅里叶模型和非傅里叶模型的基本方程出发,通过有限差分方法对方程进行数值求解。分别分析了10,1．0,0．1,0．01 ns这4种脉宽的脉冲激光作用于硅材料时两种传热模型温度曲线的相对变化;讨论了热弛豫时间对非傅里叶模型数值结果的影响。结果表明:脉宽小于或等于100 ps的激光作用于硅材料时,表层温度上升缓慢,会发生载流子效应,非傅里叶模型可以合理地反映这种现象;对于一般材料,载流子效应发生的条件是脉宽小于或等于材料热弛豫时间,此时应当用非傅里叶模型描述加热过程。     

飞秒激光精细加工含能材料

介绍了飞秒激光脉冲特点及其与物质相互作用机理, 论述了飞秒激光微加工含能材料技术特点及优势, 综述了飞秒激光加工含能材料技术及发展. 讨论了飞秒激光加工含能材料技术进一步发展所需的实验与理论研究工作以及相应的研究方案和关键技术. 关键词： 飞秒激光微加工 含能材料 冲击温度 冲击压强     

Thermal Performance of Laser Diode Array under Constant Convective Heat Transfer Boundary Condition

Three-dimensional heat transfer model of laser diode array under constant convective heat transfer coefficient boundary condition is established and analytical temperature profiles within its heat sink are obtained by separation of variables. The influences on thermal resistance and maximum temperature variation among emitters from heat sink structure parameters and convective heat transfer coefficient are brought forward. The derived formula enables the thermal optimization of laser diode array.     

Selective ablation of thin films with short and ultrashort laser pulses

Micromachining of CuInSe₂ (CIS)-based photovoltaic devices with short and ultrashort laser pulses has been investigated. Therefore, ablation thresholds and ablation rates of ZnO, Mo and CuInSe₂ thin films have been measured for irradiation with nanosecond laser pulses of ultraviolet and visible light and subpicosecond laser pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser. The experimental results were compared to the theoretical evaluation of the samples heat regime. In addition, the cells photo-electrical properties were measured before and after laser machining. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses were employed to characterise the laser-induced ablation channels. Using nanosecond laser pulses, two phenomena were found to limit the laser-machining process. Residues of Mo that were projected onto the walls of the ablation channel and the metallization of the CuInSe₂ semiconductor close to the channel lead to a shunt. The latter causes the decrease of the photovoltaic efficiency. As a consequence of these limiting effects, only subpicosecond laser pulses allowed the selective or complete ablation of the thin layers without a relevant change of the photo-electrical properties.     

Off-resonance effects of the radiofrequency pulses used in spectral editing with double-quantum coherence transfer

Spectral editing using gradient selected double-quantum (DQ) coherence transfer is often used for the selective observation of metabolites in vivo. In attempting to optimize the detection sensitivity of a conventional DQ spectral editing sequence, the effects of using radiofrequency (RF) pulses that are not at the resonance frequency of the observed peaks were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The results show that spectral editing using pulses at the frequency of the observed resonance does not necessarily give the optimal detection sensitivity. At 7 T, the detection sensitivity of lactate observed using a DQ editing method can be increased by up to 30% by setting the RF pulses off resonance at the proper frequency. The results also suggest that slice selective RF pulses used in DQ spectral editing combined with PRESS localization may have slice profiles different from those when the same pulses are used for standard PRESS spatial localization.     

Coupled thermal-optic effects and electrical modulation mechanism of birefringence crystal with Gaussian laser incidence

We study the Gaussian laser transmission in lithium niobate crystal(LiNbO3) by using the finite element method to solve the electromagnetic field's frequency domain equation and energy equation. The heat generated is identified by calculating the transmission loss of the electromagnetic wave in the birefringence crystal, and the calculated value of the heat generated is substituted into the energy equation. The electromagnetic wave's energy losses induced by its multiple refractions and reflections along with the resulting physical property changes of the lithium niobate crystal are considered.Influences of ambient temperature and heat transfer coefficient on refraction and walk-off angles of O-ray and E-ray in the cases of different incident powers and crystal thicknesses are analyzed. The E-ray electrical modulation instances, in which the polarized light waveform is adjusted to the rated condition via an applied electrical field in the cases of different ambient temperatures and heat transfer coefficients, are provided to conclude that there is a correlation between ambient temperature and applied electrical field intensity and a correlation between surface heat transfer coefficient and applied electrical field intensity. The applicable electrical modulation ranges without crystal breakdown are proposed. The study shows that the electrical field-adjustable heat transfer coefficient range becomes narrow as the incident power decreases and wide as the crystal thickness increases. In addition, it is pointed out that controlling the ambient temperature is easier than controlling the heat transfer coefficient. The results of the present study can be used as a quantitative theoretical basis for removing the adverse effects induced by thermal deposition due to linear laser absorption in the crystal, such as depolarization or wave front distortion, and indicate the feasibility of adjusting the refractive index in the window area by changing the heat transfer boundary conditions in a wide-spectrum laser.     

Feedback-controlled femtosecond pulse shaping

We describe the experimental implementation of feedback-optimized femtosecond laser pulse shaping. A frequency-domain phase shaper is combined with different pulse characterization methods and appropriate optimization algorithms to compensate for any phase deviation. In particular, bandwidth-limited, amplified laser pulses are achieved by maximizing the second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the shaped laser pulses with the aid of an evolutionary algorithm. Real-time measurement of the absolute phases is achieved with spectral interferometry where the reference pulse is characterized by FROG, the so-called TADPOLE method. Using the complete electric field as feedback, arbitrary laser pulse shapes can be optimally generated in two different ways. First, a local convergence algorithm can be used to apply reliable and accurate spectral chirps. Second, an evolutionary algorithm can be employed to reach specific temporal profiles.     

Simulation of laser ablation in aluminum: the effectivity of double pulses

Lasers are becoming a more and more important tool in cutting and shaping materials. Improving precision and effectivity is an ongoing demand in science and industry. One possibility is double pulses. Here, we study laser ablation of aluminum by the two-temperature model. There the laser is modeled as a source in a continuum heat conduction equation for the electrons, whose temperature then is transferred to a molecular dynamics particle model by an electron–phonon coupling term. The melting and ablation effectivity is investigated depending on the relative intensity and the time delay between two Gaussian shaped laser pulses. It turns out that at least for aluminum the optimal pulse shapes are standard Gaussian pulses. For double pulses with delay times up to 200 ps, we find a behavior as observed in experiment: The ablation depth decreases beyond a delay of 10 ps even if one does not account for the weakening at the second pulse due to laser–plasma interaction.     

Laser-heated boundary of transparent and absorbing materials

Temperature profiles near the boundary of an absorbing and a transparent media under laser heating of the absorbing medium, which is in contact with the transparent medium, are calculated. An exact solution for the heat conductivity equations with constant coefficients for rectangular laser pulses is obtained. The results of calculations are presented as a family of curves with dimensionless parameters which are used to recover the temperature-distribution profiles near the interface of any pair of materials, one of which is transparent for laser emission. As an example, laser heating of a graphite-diamond interface is considered. Talk presented at the oral issue of J. Russ. Laser Res. dedicated to the memory of Professor Vladimir A. Isakov, Professor Alexander S. Shumovsky, and Professor Andrei V. Vinogradov held in Moscow February 21–22, 2008.     

飞秒激光诱导有机薄膜自组装微结构

通过改变辐照激光脉冲数、激光的平均功率、显微镜物镜倍数/数值孔径等研究微皇冠结构形成与加工条件的关系,并借鉴激光熔池形成和液滴溅射的模型对其进行理论分析。当激光脉冲数达到一定数量后,烧蚀区域会出现微皇冠结构。烧蚀区域尺寸的改变是由于形成的液体区域中热毛细作用和化学毛细作用共同所致;微皇冠结构溅射个数的改变是由于形成的气体因多光子吸收体积迅速膨胀所致。     

Femtosecond laser nanostructuring of silver film

In this paper, we report an evolution of surface morphology of silver film irradiated by a 1 kHz femtosecond laser. By SEM observations, it is noted that different nanostructures with respective surface features depend highly on the number of pulses and the laser fluence. Especially when the laser fluence is below the threshold fluence of film breakdown, a textured nanostructure including many nanobumps and nanocavities will appear on the surface of silver film. In order to determine an optimal regime for nanostructuring silver film and to further study the underlying mechanism, we perform a quantitative analysis of laser fluence and pulse number. The results show that this nanostructure formation should be due to a sequential process of laser melting, vapor bubbles bursting, heat stress confinement, and subsequent material redistribution. As a potential application, we find this nanostructured silver film can be used as the active substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering effect.     

Numerical modeling of laser–matter interaction in the region of “low” laser parameters

The interaction of laser radiation with matter leads to the certain kinds of modelling of its surface or volume. These effects have been demonstrated for a lot of materials, even causing the formation of new scientific and industrial domain, which is undoubtedly laser material processing and as well as laser cleaning of artworks. Those applications lie in the so-called “low' region of laser energy densities, represented for short laser pulses by power densities below 10⁹ W/cm². Paper presents set of equations describing in one-dimensional (1D) model phenomena accompanying to laser–matter interaction. Target geometry includes two and four layers of different materials, irradiated by ns laser pulses. Effects of radiation absorption and transport, heat conductivity, target transit to plastic state, melting and evaporation are taken into consideration. The part of the paper is devoted to the discussion of numerical results, selected in such a way to illustrate the phenomenon of radiation interaction with materials as well as to show, in whole, possibilities of computer simulation methods.     

Range distributions for 25–200 keV 14N+ ions

Many features involved in the problem of heat flow through a semifinite metal sample irradiated with nanosecond laser pulses are discussed with reference both to the underlying physics and to the numerical solution of the heat diffusion equation.

Analytical expressions for several quantities, such as average velocities for the liquid-solid interface motion, maximum melted depth, and maximum surface temperature are presented. Experimental impurity profiles detected in Al samples after laser irradiation are analyzed on the basis of a diffusion-segregation hypothesis. The effects of ruby laser irradiation on virgin and ion-implanted Al single crystals, studied by using Rutherford backscattering and channelling are discussed in terms of epitaxial lattice regrowth, defect formation and metastable solid solutions.     

Laser hyperacoustic spectroscopy of single crystal germanium

Using a photothermal laser deflection technique the profiles of laser-induced hyperacoustic pulses in single crystal germanium were studied at a subnanosecond time resolution. It is shown that the hyperacoustic pulses are excited due to an electron-deformation interaction of photogenerated carriers with the crystal lattice, which is much more effective than the thermoelastic mechanism of the acoustic wave generation. Evolution of the hyperacoustic pulse profiles related to the diffraction and acoustic absorption effects was studied. An analysis of the hyperacoustic signal profiles allowed us to estimate the coefficient of ambipolar diffusion of the photogenerated charge carriers and the coefficient of hyperacoustic wave damping. It is established that the front of the electron-hole plasma laser-excited in germanium at room temperature propagates at a supersonic velocity.