CO2 laser beam modulating for surface texturing machining

Laser texturing is a novel technique that may be used to texture a cold roller in the process of manufacturing high quality steel sheets. With the aim of improving the quality of the textured roller by using a CO₂ laser, a new laser beam modulating device is proposed. An optical beam expander with a fast rotating chopper system is designed. The laser pulse is split into two parts by the chopper blades; one is the preheating pulse that is reflected onto optical loop mirrors; the other is the directly transmitted pulse that creates the craters at the preheated spots. The preheating beam focus spot size and position can be adjusted. The focusing characteristics and optical parameter compensation for the flying optics are investigated. The heat transfer and melt process of laser texturing are numerically simulated. The effects of the double pulses on the texturing are analyzed. The effect of preheating the sample ahead of the laser texturing pulse is examined. The surface profile and bump hardness show improvements by using this approach.     

飞行光学导光系统中的空气热透镜效应

研究了激光加工用大功率ＣＯ２激光束在飞行光学导光系统中传输所产生的空气热透镜效应。实验发现当飞行光学导光系统中的空气静止时将产生空气热透镜效应,而充以一定压力的压缩空气却可以消除空气热透镜效应,实验表明无热透镜效应时,光束遵循高斯光束传输规律,而秀热透镜效应时,光束偏离高斯光束的传输规律,并影响到激光束聚焦焦点的大小和位置。另外通过激光空气热透镜效应的非线性模型计算了热透镜效应所引起的光束传输相对     

自适应控制飞行光学聚焦特性

 在对高阶模飞行光学聚焦特性进行研究的基础上，提出了应用自适应飞行光学聚焦系统来解决飞行光学聚焦特性的问题，对自适应飞行光学聚焦系统的调节特性进行了数值模拟，结果表明该系统能够实现对长距离飞行光学激光加工过程中焦点位置与焦斑大小的控制。     

Molecular lens of the nonresonant dipole force

A cylindrical molecular lens is formed by focusing a nanosecond IR laser pulse. Trajectories of a CS2 molecular beam deflected by the lens are traced using the velocity map imaging technique. The characteristic lens parameters including the focal length, minimum beam width, and distance to the minimum-width position are determined. The laser intensity dependence of the parameters is in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Exciting possibilities for molecular optics and a new type of optical chromatography are opened up.     

用能动光学技术控制激光焦线形态的方法研究与仿真计算

 用一块能动反射镜、一块柱面透镜和一块非球面透镜可组成新原理的焦线形态控制系统。随时改变能动反射镜形状以调制波面位相,能将入射激光束变换成幅照均匀、长度在一定范围内连续可调的焦线。针对高斯型入射光强,探讨了用该系统控制激光焦线形态的可行性。     

Effect of focus position on informational properties of acoustic emission generated by laser-material interactions

To achieve desired accuracy, precision and surface roughness during laser-material removal process, monitoring and control of the process parameters related to laser, optics, workpiece material and its motion are required. Focus position, defined as a gap between the focusing lens and the surface of the sample workpiece, is one of the most critical process parameters, which determines the projection of the intensity of the laser beam on the surface to be ablated and therefore directly affects volume and geometry of the material removed and there by machining quality. In this paper, acoustic emission (AE) generated by laser-material interactions was statistically analyzed with respect to the variations in the focus position. The study involved on-line measurements of the AE signal from the laser-material interaction zone as a function of the focus position and the width of the machined trenches. Several basic statistical parameters, e.g. average amplitude, variance and power spectrum density were analyzed to select distinct informational parameters. Pattern recognition analysis of three informational parameters based on variances within frequency diapasons of 20-180, 180-300, and 300-500 kHz was used for reliable classification of the focus position and width of the machined trenches. The results provide important information for future development of on-line monitoring and control systems for laser-material removal process.     

Fast wavefront sensing using a hardware parallel classifier chip

In most applications of laser technology and optics the beam quality, the ability to focus a laser beam and the achievement of a good optical resolution play an important role. The compensation of distortions using adaptive optics requires fast wavefront measurement. Classical wavefront analysis schemes use matrix operations, which show a nonlinear computation time dependence with matrix size, making it difficult to achieve high-speed control loops at a high resolution. A novel wavefront sensor system is presented using a massively parallel k-nearest neighbor classifier chip in an embedded hardware setup. Our miniaturized sensor is able to detect one optical distortion within about 80 μs allowing its use for high-speed adaptive optics applications.     

激光辐照猫眼光学镜头时的反射特性机理研究

运用矩阵光学理论以及将硬边光阑窗口函数展开为有限个复高斯函数之和的方法, 对激光束辐照猫眼光学镜头时产生的猫眼效应机理进行了理论推导. 通过数值计算对猫眼效应的反射规律进行了分析, 并利用532nm激光辐照一个变焦范围为12—72mm的光学镜头进行了猫眼效应的实验验证, 从而得出了猫眼效应反射光特性与入射激光参数以及猫眼光学镜头的口径、焦距、离焦量等基本参数之间的关系. 研究表明, 猫眼效应反射光特性与猫眼光学镜头参数和入射激光参数密切相关, 且当猫眼光学镜头位于近场和远场的情况有很大不同. 根据入射光束 关键词： 猫眼光学镜头 猫眼效应 高斯光束 反射特性     

Simulation of bulk-absorption thermal lensing in transmissive optics of gravitational waves detectors

This paper presents finite-element modelling simulations of thermal lensing and thermal lens compensation in transmissive optics for gravitational wave detectors. We compare the current candidate test mass materials, fused silica and sapphire, in terms of sample geometry and time-dependent phenomena. For both materials, the thermal-lensing time constant is a few minutes, yet the core temperature needs several tens of minutes to stabilize. Thermal lens compensation using simple radiative heating is limited in temperature by absorption in the test mass. This effect limits the maximum allowed absorption for sapphire to 10–20 ppm/cm. For reasonable parameters, optical path length compensation within 1 nm can be achieved over a beam radius of 5 mm. If the optical absorption of the transmissive optics is too high, compensation can be achieved by means of a separate compensation plate. PACS 42.25.Bs; 42.70.Ce     

Optical focus control system for laser welding and direct casting

A non-intrusive optical sensor system has been developed for focus control of laser welding. This detects the light generated by the process through the laser delivery optics, and exploits the chromatic aberrations of these optics to detect any laser focal error at the workpiece. This system works for a wide range of materials and welding parameters, and example results are presented. The sensor has also been applied to laser ‘direct casting’, a process in which 3-D structures are built by flowing metal powder into a focused laser beam. In this case, melt pool temperature is also important, and so additional optics are incorporated into the sensor to provide a pyrometric temperature measurement which is used to control the laser power.     

Tapered hollow waveguide for focusing infrared laser beams

A tapered hollow waveguide that can focus a laser beam into a small beam spot is proposed for medical and dental applications. We fabricated hollow tapered optics by using a traveling torch, and the shape was formed as a precise linear taper. For a hollow taper tip with input and output diameters of 700 and 200 microm, respectively, the insertion loss is as small as 0.7 dB in a 10 mm long taper. The hollow taper optic producing a 200 microm spot withstands input energy of 100 mJ. Because a focusing lens is unnecessary at the output end, the laser beam can be introduced into a deep and narrow spot with these tapered optics.     

Development of laser deposited multilayer zone plate structures for soft X-ray radiation

As a novel approach, the combination of pulsed laser deposition and focused ion beam was applied to fabricate different types of multilayer zone plate structures for soft X-ray applications. For this purpose, high quality non-periodic ZrO₂/Ti multilayers were deposited by pulsed laser deposition on planar Si substrates and on rotating steel wires with layer thicknesses according to the Fresnel zone plate law. Linear focusing optics were fabricated by cutting slices out of the multilayers by focused ion beam and placing them directly over pinholes within Si₃N₄ substrates. Additionally, it was shown that laser deposition of depth-graded multilayers on a wire is also a promising way for building up multilayer zone plates with point focus. First experiments using a table-top X-ray source based on a laser-induced plasma show that the determined focal length and spatial resolution of the fabricated multilayer Laue lens corresponds to the designed optic.     

Laser cleaning of particle and grease contaminations on the surface of optics

In the high power laser facility, surface contaminations on the optics will worsen the laser beam quality and damage the optics. Particle and grease contaminations are two of the usual contaminations on the surface of optics. In this work, the 1064-nm laser induced plasma shockwave cleaning is utilized to remove SiO₂ particle contaminations on the K9 glass surface. The results indicate the removal ratio can reach above 95%. The effects of parameters (particle position, laser gap distance and laser energy) on the cleaning efficiency have been studied in the case of single pulse laser cleaning. In addition, CO₂ laser (10.6 μm) is utilized to remove the dimethylsilicone oil contaminations on the gold-coated K9 glass surface. The results show that CO₂ laser can effectively remove the dimethylsilicone oil by properly controlling the laser parameters. The cleaned area increases with the increased laser power or irradiation time when the other parameters are constant.     

非线性介质中会聚高功率激光的焦点位置控制

为了控制激光束的传输,使激光光束能根据实际情况在特定的位置聚焦,并且保证在传输过程中光束质量不退化,根据透镜聚焦和非线性介质的自聚焦理论,研究了高功率会聚激光光束在两者共同作用下焦点位置的变化.分析了各种因素对高功率激光光束的焦点位置的影响,并通过数值求解光束在非线性Kerr介质中所遵循的非线性薛定谔方程,得到焦点的位置变化和光束初始束宽,输入功率以及透镜焦距的关系,从而找到了控制焦点位置的方法.基于非线性薛定谔方程,对理论分析进行了相应的模拟验证,结果相互吻合.     

XRD study on the effect of the deposition condition on pulsed laser deposition of ZnO films

Using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process on a ZnO target in an oxygen atmosphere, thin films of this material have been deposited on Si(111) substrates. An Nd: YAG pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm was used as the laser source. The influences of the deposition temperature, laser energy, annealing temperature and focus lens position on the crystallinity of ZnO films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The results show that the ZnO thin films obtained at the deposition temperature of 400°C and the laser energy of 250 mJ have the best crystalline quality in our experimental conditions. The ZnO thin films fabricated at substrate temperature 400°C were annealed at the temperatures from 400°C to 800°C in an atmosphere of N₂. The results show that crystalline quality has been improved by annealing, the optimum temperature being 600°C. The position of the focusing lens has a strong influence on pulsed laser deposition of the ZnO thin films and the optimum position is 59.5 cm from the target surface for optics with a focal length of 70 cm.      

Beam Shaping Optics for YAG Laser Processing Fabricated by Computerized Numerical Control Lathe

A method for a beam shaping optics is proposed to convert a laser beam profile into arbitrary required intensity distribution. Surface profile of the beam shaping optics is designed by using Snell's law to convert the required intensity distribution at the beam irradiation plane from the input intensity distribution. A computerized numerical control (CNC) lathe is employed to fabricate the beam shaping optics, and acrylic resin is used for the material. The acrylic resin plate is cut by a ball type of grinding wheel tool consisted on diamond powder and polished by a cone type felt buff with alumina ceramics powder. The CNC lathe is powerful tool to control the position of these tools. The fabricated beam shaping optics is aspheric shape with 4 mm of thickness and it works to convert the intensity distribution of multi-mode beam profile with 13 mm of diameter into a flat top cylinder with 1 mm of diameter. A working distance of the beam shaping optics is 60 mm, and its transmittance is over 98%. It succeeds to fabricate uniform melting mark of 0.6 mm diameter on a steel target by the YAG laser process.     

High power CW solid-state multilaser system

A laser system containing four CW Nd:YAG double-rod lasers, transforming optics and a fibre with input-output optics has been designed and investigated. It is shown that reduction of the beam parameter product of the non-Gaussian beams in the image space of the lens has made it possible to collect the emission of four lasers to the same fibre. Independent laser operation has provided the output power control in the range of 10–900 W with a stable light spot size on the input end of the fibre.     

Microlenses focal length measurement using Z-scan and parallel moiré deflectometry

In this paper, a simple and accurate method based on Z-scan and parallel moiré deflectometry for measuring the focal length of microlenses is reported. A laser beam is focused by one lens and is re-collimated by another lens, and then strikes a parallel moiré deflectometer. In the presence of a microlens near the focal point of the first lens, the radius of curvature of the beam is changed; the parallel moiré fringes are formed only due to the beam divergence or convergence. The focal length of the microlens is obtained from the moiré fringe period graph without the need to know the position of the principal planes. This method is simple, more reliable, and completely automated. The implementation of the method is straightforward. Since a focused laser beam and Z-scan in free space are used, it can be employed for determining small focal lengths of small size microlenses without serious limitation on their size.     

激光天线设计与光斑保持的角量法原理

为了满足船舶激光多环检测和自动跟踪目标多环补偿技术匹配天线的需要,用简便的角量法设计了激光天线.通过三次代数方程进行天线主镜和副镜的设计,并通过检测误差信号对角量的控制来调节主、副镜的双镜距以达到激光传播过程中光斑保持稳定不变.设计原理与实验数据符合,适用于工程应用.     

变形镜对千赫兹掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光频谱相位补偿

尝试用光谱展宽的方法从频谱相位(而非时域相位)的角度利用变形反射镜来补偿1kHz飞秒激光系统输出光路的频谱相位畸变,从而提高飞秒激光脉冲的时域强度衬比度,改善其光束质量。频谱相位补偿实验是在一台1kHz掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光系统输出光路中,针对超短脉冲光束通过传输介质后的频谱相位畸变,引入变形反射镜进行补偿。应用频谱相位干涉直接电场重构(SPIDER)方法和仪器作为测量手段,建立了一套相位测量补偿系统。实验结果表明用变形反射镜可使激光脉冲的相位畸变得到较好的补偿,脉冲的光束质量得到改善。这种方法的主要思想就是将相位补偿转换为空问的光程控制,控制简单且损耗很低,是自适应光学中具有应用前景的一种补偿方法。