Characterization of laser droplet formation by reflected light

The subject of this experimental investigation is a novel laser droplet formation (LDF) process. During the LDF process, droplets are formed by melting the tip of a wire using a laser pulse. The goal of our research is to develop a non-contact method for characterization of the LDF process. For this purpose we employ the signals of the laser light that is reflected from the tip of the wire. The experiments were performed with nickel and tin-alloy wire. Results show that in-process characterization of various phases of the LDF process, like melting of the wire tip and formation of a molten pendant droplet is possible regardless of the wire material. In addition, a method for post-process detection of droplet detachment has been developed. Using the statistically defined threshold value, 99.2% and 97.8% detection reliability of droplet detachment was achieved in the case of nickel and tin-alloy wire, respectively.     

Spectral diagnostics of a vapor-plasma plume produced during welding with a high-power ytterbium fiber laser

We have conducted spectroscopic studies of the welding plasma formed in the process of welding with an ytterbium fiber laser delivering output power of up to 20 kW. The influence of shielding gases (Ar, He) on different parts of the welding plume is investigated. The absorption coefficient of the laser radiation by the welding-plume plasma is estimated. Scattering of 532-nm probe radiation from particles of the condensed metal vapor within the caustic of a high-power fiber laser beam is measured. Based on the obtained results, conclusions are made on the influence of the plasma formation and metal vapor condensation on the radiation of the high-power fiber laser and the stability of the welding process.     

Micro scale laser shock forming of pure copper and titanium sheet with forming/blanking compound die

A new process fabricating micro parts of thin metal foils by laser shock waves with forming/blanking compound die is reported in this article, in which flexible rubber material was used as the soft punch to act on the thin metal sheet. Systematic studies were carried out experimentally on the process with different laser energies and materials. The formed parts were examined in terms of their morphology, surface roughness, forming depth and mechanical properties (including nanohardness, plasticity and elastic modulus) characterized by nanoindentation test. According to the results, the ablation states of confinement medium and the surface roughness of the different regions change with energies. Additionally, the proper energies are necessary to form complex parts and the forming process can be applied to manufacture parts with good surface quality. What׳s more, the nanoindentation test results showed that the nanohardness, plasticity and elastic modulus of material were increased after impact. The increase in nanohardness and plasticity can attribute to higher stiffness of the parts. The enhanced elastic modulus indicates an increased stiffness of the parts, providing an evidence for the reduced spring back of copper during laser shocking.     

Composition-Controlled Laser-Induced Alloying of Colloidal Au–Cu Hetero Nanoparticles

Due to their optical properties (localized surface plasmon resonance, LSPR), colloidally dispersed metal nanoparticles are well suited for selective heating by high-energy laser radiation above their melting point without being limited by the boiling point of the solvent, which represents an excellent complement to wet-chemical nanoparticle synthesis. By combining wet-chemical synthesis and postsynthesis laser treatment, the advantages of both methods can be used to specifically control the properties of nanoparticles. Especially in the colloidal synthesis of nanoalloys consisting of two or more metals with different redox potentials, wet-chemical synthesis quickly reaches its limits in terms of composition control and homogeneity. For this reason, the direct synthesis path is divided into two parts to take the strengths of both methods. After preparing Au–Cu hetero nanoparticles by wet-chemical synthesis, nanoalloys with previous adjusted composition can be formed by postsynthesis laser treatment. The formation of these nanoalloys can be followed by different characterization methods, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), where the fusion of both metal domains and the formation of spherical and homogeneous Au–Cu nanoparticles can be observed. Moreover, the alloy formation can be followed by different shifts of X-ray diffraction (XRD) reflections and LSPR maxima depending on the composition.     

Moderate micro-explosion during the combustion of iron wire in atmospheric air

The combustion of a thin iron wire in atmospheric air was investigated through the in-situ high-speed videography and the sampled product characterization. During the iron wire burning, a hot spherical ball was found to form at the wire tip and propagate with a speed of around 3.5 cm/s along the wire. Meanwhile, small bright droplets were randomly ejected from the burning ball. In fact, the burning spherical ball is hollow to be a ferric bubble according to the SEM image of sampled product. The high-speed videography further indicates that the small droplet ejection occurs largely owing to the bubble bursting, that is called the moderate micro-explosion to be different from the conventional micro-explosion process. For this bubble bursting process, the volume expansion rate inside the burning bubble needs not to be very fast but the bubble size should be adequate. If the bubble is too small (e.g. <50 μm), the droplet ejection during bubble bursting may be difficult to occur. Furthermore, the bubble formation is mainly attributed to the fact that carbon dissolved in iron can be preferentially oxidized to produce CO₂, which nucleates to generate a large bubble inside the ferric ball. It is noted that less than 0.05%wt of carbon content is enough for the bubble formation. It thereby suggests that carbon content should be accurately measured to predict the micro-explosion phenomena during iron combustion.     

Investigation of debris dynamics from laser-produced tin plasma for EUV lithography light source

The dynamics of debris from the laser-produced tin (Sn) plasma was investigated for an extreme ultraviolet light source in order to establish the guideline for the optimum design of a mitigation system, such as a mass-limited target. The dissemination of the Sn atoms from the different shapes of a wire and a mass-limited droplet target were investigated using the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) imaging method. The Sn droplet targets with a diameter in the range of 5 to 17 μm were prepared by a new droplet generating technique using a pulsed laser. There was a large difference in the angular distribution of Sn atoms in the plane parallel and perpendicular to the wire axis, indicating the curvature of the target surface governed the angular distribution of the ablated species. The spatial distributions of Sn atoms from the droplet targets were similar to those from the curved surface of the wire targets. The ablation dynamics of the droplet observed by a high-speed imaging camera is also discussed.     

Combining wire and coaxial powder feeding in laser direct metal deposition for rapid prototyping

Powder and wire deposition have been used separately in many laser-cladding, rapid prototyping and other additive manufacturing applications. In this paper, a new approach is investigated by simultaneously feeding powder from a coaxial nozzle and wire from an off-axis nozzle into the deposition melt pool. Multilayer parts are built from 316L steel using a 1.5 kW diode laser and different configurations of the powder and wire nozzles are compared in terms of surface roughness, deposition rate, porosity and microstructure. The parts are analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscopy techniques. Results show that deposition efficiency increased and surface roughness decreased with the combined process; some porosity was present in samples produced by this method, but it was 20-30% less than in samples produced by powder alone. Wire injection angles into the melt pool in both horizontal and vertical planes were found to be significant for attaining high deposition efficiency and good surface quality. Reasons for the final sample characteristics and differences between the combined process and the separate powder and wire feeding techniques are discussed.     

Experimental investigation on: Laser shock micro-forming process using the mask and flexible pad

A forming process called the mask and flexible pad laser shock forming was proposed to fabricate the micro-features on the copper foil. In this process, the mask and laser beam were used as rigid punches. Shock waves induced by plasma were used as the source of loading and plasticine was used as a flexible pad. This was a micro scale and high strain rate forming process and the traditional forming method with micro-mold was changed. In the experiment, surface morphology of formed parts was represented and it was found that the mask played a significant role in the forming process. In order to understand the forming process in the experiment, process parameters, including laser pulse energy, numbers of laser pulse and grain size, were analyzed. The experimental results showed that different parameters had different effects on formed parts. The surface quality and the thickness distribution of formed parts were investigated. It was found that formed parts could keep good surface quality after laser shocking and the reasons were explored. The thickness distribution was measured and the thickness thinning rate was calculated. There was no local tightening or rupture in the forming area. In this paper, the micro-features could be obtained on metallic foils and the method of mold-free was proved to be feasible.     

The influence of laser and powder defocusing characteristics on the surface quality in laser direct metal deposition

To investigate the influencing rules of the variations of powder and laser defocusing distance on surface quality and obtain the smooth surface of parts in laser direct metal deposition, the thin-walled metal parts were fabricated under three different powder defocusing distances and three different laser defocusing distances conditions. The experimental results show that a high surface quality can be obtained with the powder focussed below the substrate and laser focussed above the substrate process, and the variation in which the powder focus moves from above to below the melt pool plays a leading role and the variation in which the laser focus moves from above to below the melt pool plays a supplementary role in the influence on the surface quality. To explain the experimental results, a simple model of the track height is established.     

基于光谱分析的CO_2激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊峰值状态激光能量传输研究

在激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊接过程中,焊丝端部金属熔化产生大量的金属蒸汽,导致等离子体中电子、粒子的扩散现象加剧,使得激光的传输模式和工件对激光能量的吸收率和吸收模式发生变化。基于光谱分析的方法得到了复合焊接峰值状态的电子密度和温度分布,通过高速摄影分析了不同焊接模式下等离子体形态的变化,结合Beer-Lambert吸收定律计算了不同焊接模式下激光的吸收率。结果表明,在复合焊过程中,由于焊丝端部金属被熔化,焊丝的金属蒸汽进入激光等离子体内部,导致激光匙孔上方电子密度进一步提高,等离子体吸收激光能量能力增强,使得激光的传输效率从纯激光焊的94.16%降低到了CO_2激光+脉冲GMAW复合焊的85.84%。     

Influence of shielding gas pressure on welding characteristics in CO2 laser-MIG hybrid welding process

The droplet transfer behavior and weld characteristics have been investigated under different pressures of shielding gas in CO2 laser and metal inert/active gas (laser-MIG) hybrid welding process. The experimental results indicate that the inherent droplet transfer frequency and stable welding range of conventional MIG arc are changed due to the interaction between CO2 laser beam and MIG arc in laser-MIG hybrid welding process, and the shielding gas pressure has a crucial effect on welding characteristics. When the pressure of shielding gas is low in comparison with MIG welding, the frequency of droplet transfer decreases, and thedroplet transfer becomes unstable in laser-MIG hybrid welding. So the penetration depth decreases, which shows the characteristic of unstable hybrid welding. However, when the pressure of shielding gas increases to a critical value, the hybrid welding characteristic is changed from unstable hybrid welding to stablehybrid welding, and the frequency of droplet transfer and the penetration depth increase significantly.     

Plasma formation dynamics within a water microdroplet on femtosecond time scales

We demonstrate that a highly confined plasma inclusion is formed inside a micrometric water droplet that is excited by a femtosecond laser. An 800-nm laser pulse generates a plasma inclusion by laser-induced breakdown that is subsequently probed by the elastic scattering of a second (400-nm) time-delayed ultrashort pulse. For a 25-microm-radius droplet and an incident intensity of 7 x 10(12) W/cm2 the radius of the highly localized plasma is 1.9 +/- 0.4 microm. We probed the plasma formation dynamics on femtosecond time scales by varying the delay between the pump and the probe pulses. Good agreement with numerical simulations of the process was found.     

Growth of ZnO nanoparticles and nanorods with ultrafast pulsed laser deposition

In this work, we study the application of ultrafast pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in ZnO nanomaterial synthesis, including nanoparticles and nanorods. PLD using long pulse (nanosecond) lasers has been widely used as a method for growing prototype materials. The recently-emerged ultrafast PLD is expected to be able to overcome the problem of large liquid droplet formation. Using near infrared and femtosecond laser pulses in ablation, we first characterize the ablation plume using a Langmuir probe and plasma optical emission spectroscopy. We then examine the structural properties of the nanoparticles generated during low-fluence ablation. Finally, we demonstrate that using nanoparticle aggregates as templates, assisted by plume-excited nitrogen radicals at a high fluence, high quality ZnO nanorods can be grown free of metal catalysts.     

Laser-induced jet formation and droplet ejection from thin metal films

An experimental study of femtosecond laser-induced jet formation and droplet ejection from thin metal films is presented. These processes are compared to liquid jet formation during laser-induced forward transfer of viscous liquids. As a result of this comparison, a mechanism explaining the main features of laser processing of thin metal films is proposed. According to this mechanism, laser-induced generation of a molten bump and its collapse are similar to the collapse of cavitation bubbles on a liquid?Cair interface. Material criteria required for realization of the jetting process are discussed and supported by experimental observations.     

Analysis of droplet transfer mode and forming process of weld bead in CO2 laser–MAG hybrid welding process

In this paper, CO₂ laser–metal active gas (MAG) hybrid welding technique is used to weld high strength steel and the optimized process parameters are obtained. Using LD Pumped laser with an emission wavelength of 532 nm to overcome the strong interference from the welding arc, a computer-based system is developed to collect and visualize the waveforms of the electrical welding parameters and metal transfer processes in laser–MAG. The welding electric signals of hybrid welding processes are quantitatively described and analyzed using the ANALYSATOR HANNOVER. The effect of distance between laser and arc (D_LA) on weld bead geometry, forming process of weld shape, electric signals, arc characteristic and droplet transfer behavior is investigated. It is found that arc characteristic, droplet transfer mode and final weld bead geometry are strongly affected by the distance between laser and arc. The weld bead geometry is changed from “cocktail cup” to “cone-shaped” with the increasing D_LA. The droplet transfer mode is changed from globular transfer to projected transfer with the increasing D_LA. Projected transfer mode is an advantage for the stability of hybrid welding processes.     

Molecular dynamics study of the role of material properties on nanoparticles formed by rapid expansion of a heated target

Rapid expansion of a heated target and its decomposition into fragments is investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations. Particular attention is focused on the void formation and nucleation that governs the target disintegration. The cluster formation process is investigated as a function of material properties (initial temperature, interaction potential and composition). Calculation results demonstrate the influence of these properties on void nucleation and growth and on the characteristic parameters of nanoparticles to be formed. In particular, larger initial temperature and expansion rate lead to the formation of smaller fragments. These effects are found to be similar for three different materials (silicon, nickel and metal alloy). In addition, the stoichiometrical cluster composition obtained in the expansion of a binary alloy is found to be fairly well preserved. The calculation results can be used for the interpretation of the experimental findings showing the formation of nanoparticles by short and ultra-short pulse laser ablation of both simple and more complex materials.     

Plunging method for Nd : YAG laser cladding with wire feeding

The effects of wire feeding direction and position, cladding time, and cladding speed on the quality of cladding layer for laser cladding with wire feeding are studied. Experiment results indicate that the wire feeding direction and position are important for wire laser cladding. By adopting the correct wire feeding direction and position, the wire can be plunged into the melt pool and can be melted by the heat of the molten metal. With the increase of cladding speed, the dilution of clad layer can be reduced and the growth of the grain size of heat-affected zone of the base metal can be limited. If proper cladding parameters are used, the clad layers will have a good surface shape, sound metallurgical bonding with base metal, low dilution, and the effect of heating on heat-affected zone metal can be limited. The hardness of the clad layer and heat-affected zone are checked. It indicates that with the increase of cladding speed, the hardness of the clad layer and heat-affected zone increases.     

强激光产生的强磁场及其对弓激波的影响

强激光照射金属线圈后,会在打靶点附近的背景等离子体中诱发冷电子的回流,在金属丝内形成强电流源,从而产生强磁场.本文利用神光II高功率激光器产生的强激光照射金属丝靶,产生了围绕金属丝的环形强磁场.利用B-dot对局域磁感应强度进行了测量,根据测量结果,结合三维模拟程序,反演得到磁场的空间分布.再利用强激光与CH平面靶相互作用产生的超音速等离子体撞击该金属丝,产生了弓激波.通过光学成像手段研究了磁场对冲击波的影响,发现磁场使得弓激波的轮廓变得不明显并且张角变大.同时,通过实验室天体物理定标率,将金属丝表面等离子参数变换到相应的天体参数中,结果证明利用该实验方法可以在实验室中产生类似太阳风的磁化等离子体.     

Single-step laser deposition of functionally graded coating by dual ‘wire-powder’ or ‘powder-powder’ feeding—A comparative study

The creation of iron-copper (Fe-Cu) alloys has practical application in improving the surface heat conduction and corrosion resistance of, for example, conformal cooling channels in steel moulds, but is difficult to achieve because the elements have got low inter-solubility and are prone to solidification cracking. Previous work by these authors has reported a method to produce a graded iron-nickel-copper coating in a single-step by direct diode laser deposition (DLD) of nickel wire and copper powder as a combined feedstock. This work investigates whether dual powder feeds can be used in that process to afford greater geometric flexibility and compares attributes of the ‘nickel wire and copper powder’ and ‘nickel powder and copper powder’ processes for deposition on a H13 tool steel substrate.In wire-powder deposition, a higher temperature developed in the melt pool causing a clad with a smooth gradient structure. The nickel powder in powder-powder deposition did not impart much heat into the melt pool so the melt pool solidified with sharp composition boundaries due to single metal melting in some parts. In wire-powder experiments, a graded structure was obtained by varying the flow rates of wire and powder. However, a graded structure was not realised in powder-powder experiments by varying either the feed or the directions. Reasons for the differences and flow patterns in the melt pools and their effect on final part properties of parts produced are discussed.     

纳秒脉冲激光对金属丝电爆炸过程的瞬态测量方法研究

金属丝电爆炸是获取金属纳米级粉粒的有效途径,电爆炸的演绎过程直接影响金属粉颗粒的尺度范围。采用纳秒级脉冲激光对爆炸过程的瞬态进行观察,以激光干涉条纹为背景,依据电爆炸过程中,对条纹的扰动获取具有清晰边缘的爆炸区图像;再根据激光穿过爆炸云团的透过率计算出不同时刻粉尘体浓度的三维分布图。测量结果表明:通电后0.5 μs,金属丝直径由0.3 mm扩展为4.7 mm, 直到18 μs时扩展为28 mm,而粒子的最大浓度由3×1021/cm3减小为1.1×1020/cm3。整个扩展过程中,粒子浓度沿径向呈现多个环带的分布形态。