Laser interaction with engineering materials:

Introduction:

LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser is a

device which produces highly directional light. It emits light through a process called stimulated
emission of radiation which increases the intensity of light.

A laser is different from conventional light sources in four ways: coherence, directionality,
monochromacity, and high intensity. The light waves of ordinary light sources have many
wavelengths. Hence, the photons emitted by ordinary light sources are out of phase. Thus,
ordinary light is incoherent.

On the other hand, the light waves of laser light have only one wavelength. Hence, all the
photons emitted by laser light are in phase. Thus, laser light is coherent. The light waves from
laser contain only one wavelength or color so it is known as monochromatic light.

The laser beam is very narrow and can be concentrated on a very small area. This makes laser
light highly directional. The laser light spreads in a small region of space. Hence, all
the energy is concentrated on a narrow region. Therefore, laser light has greater intensity than the
ordinary light.

A laser or laser system consists of three important components: a pump source, laser medium
and optical resonator.

Pump Source

The pump source or energy source is the part of a laser system that provides energy to the laser
medium. To get laser emission, first we need to produce population inversion. Population
inversion is the process of achieving greater number of electrons in higher energy state as
compared to the lower energy state.

The source of energy supplies sufficient amount of energy to the laser medium by which the
electrons in the lower energy state are excited to the higher energy state. As a result, we get
population inversion in the active medium or laser medium. Examples of energy sources include
electric discharges, light from another laser, chemical reactions, and flash lamps. The type of
energy source used is mostly depends on the laser medium. Excimer laser uses chemical reaction
as energy source, a helium laser uses an electric discharge as energy source and Nd:YAG laser
uses light focused from diode laser as energy source. 
Laser Medium

The laser medium is a medium where spontaneous and stimulated emission of radiation takes
place. Generally, the population of lower energy state is greater than the higher energy state.
However, after achieving population inversion, the population of higher energy state becomes
greater than the lower energy state.

After receiving sufficient energy from source, the electrons in the lower energy state or ground
state are excited to the higher energy state (in the laser medium). The electrons in the excited
state do not stay for long period because the lifetime of electrons in the excited state is very
small. Hence, after a short period, the electrons in the excited state will fall back to the ground
state by releasing energy in the form of light or photons. This is called spontaneous emission. In
spontaneous emission, each electron emits a single photon while falling to the ground state.

When these emitted photons collide with the electrons in the excited state or meta stable state, it
forces meta stable electrons to fall back to the ground state. As a result, electrons again release
energy in the form of photons. This is called stimulated emission. In stimulated emission, each
electron emits two photons while falling to the ground state.

When these emitted photons are again interacted with the meta stable state electrons then again
two photons are emitted by each electron. Thus, millions of photons are generated by using only
a small number of photons.

If we use electrical energy as energy source then a single photon or few photons (which are
produced spontaneously) will produce large number of photons by stimulated emission process.
Thus, light amplification is achieved in laser medium. Laser medium is also known as active
medium or gain medium.

The laser medium will determine the characteristics of the laser light emitted. The laser medium
can be solid, liquid, or gaseous.
Nd YAG is an example for solid-state laser.. In this laser, xenon discharge tube which provides a
flash light acts as pump source. Co2 laser is an example for gaseous laser. radio frequency (RF)
generator acts as pump source.

Optical Resonator 

The laser medium is surrounded by two parallel mirrors which provides feedback of the light.
One mirror is fully reflective (100 % reflective) whereas another one is partially reflective (<100
% reflective). These two mirrors as a whole is called optical resonator. Optical resonator is also
known as optical cavity or resonating cavity. These two mirrors are given optical coatings which
determine their reflective properties. Optical coating is a thin layer of material deposited on
materials such as mirror or lens. Each mirror is coated differently. Therefore, each mirror will
reflect the light differently. One mirror will completely reflect the light whereas another one will
partially reflect the light.

The completely reflective mirror is called high reflector whereas the partially reflective mirror is
called output coupler. The output coupler will allows some of the light to leave the optical cavity
to produce the laser’s output beam. When energy is supplied to the laser medium, the lower
energy state electrons in the laser medium will moves to excited state. After a short period, the
electrons in the excited state will fall back to the ground state by releasing energy in the form of
photons or light. This process of emission of photons is called spontaneous emission. Thus, light
is produced in an active medium by a process called spontaneous emission. This amplified light
escapes through the partially reflecting mirror. The process of stimulating electrons of other
atoms to produce light in the laser medium is called stimulated emission. The light in the laser
medium is reflected many hundreds of times between the mirrors before it escape through the
partially reflecting mirror. The light escaped from the partially reflecting mirror is produced by
the stimulated emission process. Hence, this light will travel to large distances without spreading
in the space.

The cost of cutting hard-to-machine materials by conventional mechanical machining processes

is high due to the low material removal rate and short tool life, and some materials are not
possible to be cut by the conventional machining process at all. Laser beam machining is the
machining processes involving a laser beam as a heat source. It is a thermal process used to
remove materials without mechanical engagement with work piece material where the work
piece is heated to melting or boiling point and removed by melt ejection, vaporization, or
ablation mechanisms. In contrast with a conventional machine tool, the laser radiation does not
experience wear, and material removal is not dependent on its hardness but on the optical
properties of the laser and the optical and thermo physical properties of the material
 Functional requirements of a laser for material Processing
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER) is a high-energy
beam of electromagnetic radiation. The light, photon, travels as a wave through space, but
behaves as a particle of energy when it encounters matter. Because of its high coherence,
monochromaticity, power, directionality, leasers are most sought in industry for various
machining processes.

1. Monochromaticity
Although it is never composed of only a single wavelength in laser cavity, laser beam
can be considered to be monochromatic because the oscillating laser consists of very
closely spaced, discrete, and narrow spectral lines compared with conventional light
source whose emission covers frequency bandwidth in the order of gigahertz. For better
monochromaticity, single mode can be achieved by forcing laser to oscillate on a single
transverse (usually, the fundamental TEM00 Gaussian mode) and longitudinal mode.
The intensity distribution in the Gaussian beam is expressed as

I(r)= I0 exp(-2r2/ w2), where I0 is the peak intensity (x=0) and w is the width I0/ e2)

2.Coherence

The laser beam is coherent because of the fixed-phase relationship between two waves
at the wave front over time (spatial coherence) or between two points of the same wave
(temporal coherence) While spatial coherence is concerned with the phase correlation
of waves in different  observation points, temporal coherence entails  the phase
correlation of waves at a given point in space at two different instances of time, it is the
measure of the average correlation between the value of a wave and itself delayed by
a certain period of time. Temporally coherent wave will interfere with its delayed wave
and produce a good interference pattern. This delay is called coherence length l=c.dt.
with itself. The delay on which the correlation effect is emphatically low is denoted by.

3. Directionality or collimation

Contrary to popular assumption, a laser beam does not retain its original width over an
infinite distance. Rather, it slowly spreads out, or diverges. As the beam leaves the laser it
is initially parallel, but it immediately begins to spread out at a steadily increasing rate.
The rate of spreading out eventually reaches a maximum value called the divergence
angle θ given by the equation:

θ = λ/ π w0

In this equation w0 is the radius of the beam where it leaves the laser (at distance z = 0)
and λ is the wavelength of the laser.
The inverse relationship between the divergence angle θ and the minimum or initial size of
the beam w0 means that the smaller the initial size of the beam is, the faster the beam will
spread out as it travels away from the laser. ( Typically this angle ranges from 0.2 to 10 milli
radians). As a result, laser is highly directional and this enables it to be focused to a very
small spot over a long distance. Generally, it is possible to focus the laser beam at a radius of
the same magnitude as the wavelength. This can also be done with an ordinary lamp but the
difference is the number of photons that can be delivered per second onto a small area. This
is very low for an ordinary lamp but huge for a laser. For example, a 633 nm beam with a
power of 1 mW corresponds to a flux of 10 15 photons per second and can easily be focused
on a micrometre-wide spot. Thus, the power density of a simple helium-neon laser at a focal
point is much greater than a sunbeam focused by a lens.

4. Brightness It measures the capability of a laser oscillator to emit a high optical power
per unit area per unit solid angle, which is related to the directionality of the laser
beam. Smaller divergence angle results in higher brightness. Laser beam machining
process requires a laser beam with high brightness

5. The spectrum of a laser oscillator

The cavity also filters the spectrum emitted by the laser. A linear cavity is basically the
same as a Fabry-Pérot interferometer. Only waves of a certain frequency can be
successfully propagated. This frequency is defined by   ( or λ= 2L/k) where k
is an integer, (called mode which is a measure of number of half wave lengths in the
cavity) c the speed of light in a vacuum and L the optical length of the (linear) cavity. In
the case of optical frequencies, k is very large and may reach tens of thousands for a
cavity of a few centimetres. Waves that propagate with these frequencies in the cavity are
known as longitudinal modes. The spectrum emitted by a laser oscillator is thus
composed of a comb of regularly spaced (C/2L) frequencies, usually centred on the
spontaneous emission spectrum

Appearance of the emitted spectrum of a laser compared to the spontaneous emission of a

laser transition.  
A laser is often described as monochromatic (for example, the helium-neon laser), a
definition that must be well understood. In fact, broadly speaking, the spectral bandwidth
of a laser is given by the width of the spontaneous emission: if the transition between the
upper and lower levels is narrow, then the spontaneous emission will be fractions of a
nanometre (this is the case for the red line in neon, which has a width equal to
 1/1000th of a nanometre and a frequency of 1 GHz). The spectrum of a helium-neon laser
is therefore “monochromatic” in the sense that only one colour is visible to the naked eye
as the line is very narrow. Other types of laser have a much wider transition (for example,
several hundreds of nanometres for the titanium-doped sapphire, which has a
spontaneous emission spectrum ranging from 700 to more than 1000 nm) and
consequently emit a spectrum that cannot be defined as monochromatic.
The spectral properties of lasers become even more interesting when just one frequency
can be selected (using a series of filters placed in the optical cavity). This type of laser is
defined as a single frequency or single mode laser. In this case, the width of the spectrum
can be very much smaller than the spontaneous emission spectrum. For example, some
helium-neon lasers have a spectral width of 1 Hz while the linewidth is measured in GHz.

6. Beam Profile of laser beam

The cavity acts as a spatial filter by selecting only those light rays beams close to its central axis:
the others are lost due to their distance from the axis and the size of the mirrors . An optical
cavity selects a specific beam (a Gaussian beam) from the many photons spontaneously emitted
by the “lamp-amplifying medium” and the number of photons carried by this beam is increased
considerably, as it travels back and forth, by the process of stimulated emission. This beam can
have a very low divergence and can be very precisely focused if the right optical tools are used.

Behaviour of a non-perpendicular light beam in an optical cavity  

A laser operating in a steady state produces a light wave whose spatial structure does not change
despite numerous round trips inside the cavity. In this case, the laser cavity must contain a light
wave able to propagate in the cavity and remain constant after each round trip. This is known as
a “Gaussian” wave whose light distribution is Gaussian in shape in the plane perpendicular to the
axis of propagation. Physically, a Gaussian wave concentrates the light along the axis of the
cavity. A Gaussian wave emitted through space is like a narrow beam of light and is called a
Gaussian beam. By placing a small piece of cardboard or a detector perpendicular to the
propagation axis of the wave (at the laser output) it is possible to measure the irradiance (the
number of photons incident on a surface per unit area). Graphically, this irradiance will follow a
Gaussian curve as shown below.
Appearance of a Gaussian beam: distribution of illuminance in a plane perpendicular to the
direction of propagation.  
7. Beam diameter/ spot size:
A certain spatial extension of the light wave can also be defined: the radius of the beam   is
equal to the distance between the optical axis and the spot where the irradiance is divided by 1/e2
of its peak value.
8. Depth of focus
The depth of focus is the distance over which the focused beam has approximately the same
intensity. It is defined as the distance over which the focal spot size changes by +5% or -5%.

9. Power output
Fundamental method of checking the performance of a laser is to measure its power or energy
output. The power of a laser is measured in Watt (mW, nW,…..). This is referred to optical
power output of laser beam, which is continuous power output of continuous wave or the average
power of a pulsed or modulated laser. The energy of a laser refers to output of pulsed laser and is
related to power output where energy E is the laser’s peak power P p multiplied by laser pulse
duration (t),

E = Pp x t

The average power of pulsed laser Pa is pulse energy multiplied by laser repetition rate (Hz).

Pa = E x Hz

For e.g., Excimer laser might have a 10 ns pulse width, energy of 10 mJ/ pulse, and operates at a
repetition rate of 10 pulse /s This laser has a peak power of

Pp = 10 mJ / 10 ns = 1 MW

Average power of,

Pa = 10 m J x 10 = 100 mW
Sensors used to measure laser power and energy are, Pyroelectric sensors, thermopile sensors,
semiconductor/ photodiode/ optical sensors.

10.Beam Divergence

Divergence angle ɵ = d2- d1 / (Z2-Z1)

Industrial High power lasers and their Properties:

Gas lasers (C O2 , He- Ne)

 High energy efficiency and high average power, Wall-plug efficiency up to 15 % ( 100 %
optical output electrical output)
 Wavelength 10.6 µm- not visible ( continuous or pulsed )
 Well absorbed by organic and ceramic but poorly absorbed by metals.
 Optical delivery is through mirrors, since optical fibers are opaque to CO2
 Average power of the beam – few mW to KW

Nd-YAG Laser

 Solid state laser (Nd 3+ doped in YAG- 2-3 % effieciency ), optical pumping ( Xe, Kr- 25
% effeiciency)
 Wavelength 1.6 µm ( continuous or pulsed )
 Peak power in pulsed mode is tens of KW
 Q-switched-ns pulse (20 KHz)
 Can be transmitted through optical fibers-3 D component processing- robots
 Lower wavelength- better absorption by metals
 Less plasma in laser welding / drilling ( absorption varies with the colour of the work
piece – less efficient so costly)

Excimer laser
ArK, KrF, XeCl

 Wavelength 193 µm – 453 µm (uv)

 Peak power- MW
 Only pulsed mode
 Efficiency -3-5%
 Absorbed well by most materials
 In organic materials this laser produces photo aberration, which breaks the bond and
removes them without heat generation ( cold process)
 Micro machining, thin film deposition and masking

Semiconductor laser

Type III – V semiconductor GaAs, InP, GaAs/GaInAs

 Semiconductor with polished edges

 0.05-1.4 eV
 Wavelength 810 µm
 Continuous mode, compact, highly efficient-40%
 Optical power less coherent
 Arrays of laser diode, high power material processing
 Rectangular beam geometry, through optical fiber –circular
 Cannot be focused on a small region
 Surface treatment applications

Q-switching:
It  is a technique for obtaining energetic short (but not ultrashort) pulses from a laser by
modulating the intra cavity losses and thus the  Quality factor of the laser resonator. The
technique is mainly applied for the generation of nanosecond pulses of high energy and peak
power with solid-state bulk lasers.
In order to store many atoms in an upper level, the flow to a lower level must first be limited.
Thus, stimulated emission must be prevented by placing an attenuator in the cavity to stop light
from travelling back and forth (note: this attenuator is usually a light modulator, rather than a
mechanical shutter, which reduces the amplitude or power of the light beam). In this case, for a
radiative transition, the only decay to a lower level is due to spontaneous emission. When the
pumping system supplies more atoms per second than lose energy by spontaneous emission, the
population in the upper level can become very large
 Figure 17: Accumulation of atoms in the upper level when the optical cavity is blocked.  
This operating condition is much easier to achieve with media that have a low rate of
spontaneous emission. This is true for solid state ion-doped lasers (for example
Nd:YAG or Yb:YAG) but not for gas (neon or argon) or semiconductor lasers. These
have high rates of spontaneous emission so it is difficult to attain a large population in
the upper level.
After a certain time, the energy losses in the cavity are suddenly reduced so that laser
oscillation becomes possible. As there is a very large population in the upper level,
stimulated emission becomes very probable and the laser is suddenly triggered. The flow due
to stimulated emission is much greater than the other flows (filling by pumping and
emptying by spontaneous emission): all the atoms stored in the upper level fall sharply,
emitting stimulated photons (starting with the spontaneous emission trapped in the cavity).
Thus, the laser cavity fills with stimulated photons at the same time as the upper level
empties (Figure 18).
 Laser effect once the optical cavity is suddenly opened.  
Eventually, the upper level is completely empty. There is no further stimulated emission and
the cavity will also empty due to the losses created by the output mirror (in general, the
cavity empties after only a few round trips as shown in the above picture).

Depletion of the optical cavity once all the atoms have returned to the ground state.  
This process gives rise to a dramatic variation in the number of photons in the cavity (first by
a significant amplification due to stimulated emission then by the complete emptying of the
cavity at the end). The net result is the emission of a short pulse of light via the output
mirror.
Generally, several round trips are needed to completely depopulate the upper energy level
and several more round trips to empty the optical cavity so the duration of the pulse is
greater than one round trip. This means that for optical cavities shorter than a metre (one
round trip less than 6 ns), it is possible to generate short pulses of only a few nanoseconds
 but several mill joules in power. The peak power (the pulse energy divided by its duration)
of these lasers can be in the megawatt range or even higher. Q-switched lasers (nanosecond
pulses) can be used to immobilize particles in a gas or a moving machine part (the
stroboscope effect). The temporal concentration enables instantaneous electrical fields to be
achieved, which can be greater than the fields of atomic bonds in a molecule or a metal. It is
therefore possible to create plasmas or to detach atoms from a surface without producing any
warming.

II. Interaction of Laser with matter:

When a laser beam is focused on a surface, energy from the photon is transferred to the
substance. This leads to different response from different materials. The laser-matter interaction
depends on the material properties (e.g., chemical and physical properties, surface roughness),
the laser radiation characteristics (e.g., wavelength, energy density, laser power, and duration of
irradiation), and the surrounding atmosphere (e.g., pressure and temperature) . For instance,
different effects on irradiated matter are observed at different laser intensity thresholds. A
number of laser treatments are thus available depending on the type of material to be irradiated
and the laser beam characteristics. Depending on the energy of the photons (i.e., the beam
wavelength), the absorbed intensity varies with the depth. Some of the parameters that
significantly influence the radiation absorption are the skin depth, the surface temperature, the
angle of incidence of the laser beam, and the substrate surface topography. Among those, the key
parameter is the skin depth that is the depth at which the intensity amplitude decays by a factor
of 0.37 (i.e., 1/e)

Photo chemical process:

When a material (normally an organic material) is irradiated by a short-wavelength (in

UV range, such as excimer laser) and short-pulse-length (shorter than the thermal relaxation time
in microseconds) laser beam, the molecular bonds in a very thin layer of the material surface can
be broken by the higher energy of shorter-wavelength photon with minimum thermal effect, and
this is also called ‘‘cold-cutting.’’ The photon energies between 3.60 and 4.29 eV within the
wavelength between 344 and 288 nm are high enough to break C–C and C–H covalent bonds
(with average binding energies of 347 kJ/mol and 414 kJ/mol, respectively) . This process is also
called photo ablation. It is used for the removal of polymer material by using intense UV or
infrared laser. If infrared lasers are used, the irradiated material is heated and decomposes,
leaving a void in the polymer material. If UV radiation is used, the irradiated polymer
decomposes, presumably of a mixture of two mechanisms: thermal and direct bond breaking.
Thermal bond breaking is induced by heat, as with infrared irradiation. In direct bond breaking,
polymer molecules directly absorb ultraviolet photons, often absorbing enough energy so that the
chemical bonds within the polymer chains are broken. The resulting smaller polymer chains are
volatile or melt at much lower temperatures than the bulk polymers, leaving a void in the
material.

Photothermal Process :
When a laser beam irradiates the workpiece surface, part of the laser beam energy is absorbed by
the workpiece surface due to the interaction between the electromagnetic radiation and electrons
of the workpiece materialsThe absorbed laser energy is converted to the thermal energy to cause
a significant temperature rise on the surface of the workpiece, which can

1. induce thermal stress in the heat-affected zone if the surface temperature is lower than the
melting point;

2. melt the surface of material when the surface temperature is higher than the melting point, but
lower than the boiling point;

3. vaporize the surface of material when the surface temperature is higher than the boiling
point. Vaporization occurs on the material surface when the surface temperature reaches its
boiling point with high laser intensity ([108 W/cm2 ), which is usually achieved with pulsed
laser (superpulsing or hyperpulsing). Recoil pressure is generated on the melt surface due to
the vapor evolution, which can push the melt layer from the molten zone when the
tangential recoil pressure exceeds the surface tension. Because the material surface is
partially melted and vaporized, the material removal process without assist gas comprises
both melt expulsion due to the recoil pressure and vaporization . A plasma plume may be
formed at or near to the surface of the materials as the result of interaction between laser
beam and vapor.

This plasma plume would absorb most of the incident beam energy and lead to decoupling
of the incident beam from the work piece surface , thereby lowering the process efficiency .
This can be reduced by using an assist gas jet. The functions of an assist gas are :

1. protect the work piece from undesirable reactions with the ambient gas and cool the hot
zone by the forced convection

2. remove the molten material from cutting front through the narrow kerf (width of cut
opening) to keep the cutting process going. The flow need to be directed with a major
component of its velocity in the direction of the expulsion;

3. provide exothermic heating by chemical reaction if reactive gas used.

Heat Affected Zone- HAZ

During laser interaction, heat conduction loss to the surrounding solid parts results in
temperature rise in the surface from the interaction spot. This results change in the
microstructure phase, grain size and carbide formation. This results in higher tendency of
cracking, surface hardening, decreases weldability, corrosion resistance and fatigue life.
The width of HAZ increases with increase in work piece thickness (higher heat
conduction loss because of thicker work piece). The width of HAZ can be reduced by cutting
speed. The type of nozzle used changes HAZ. Increase in assist gas pressure reduces HAZ
(effective removal of melt and strengthened cooling effect). The melt’s viscosity and strength are
increased, the flow velocity is decreased and HAZ increases. A small drop of melt which is
attached to the lower cut edge ( which is not removed by the gas ) is called dross. This increases
HAZ which depends on composition, absorptivity at the particular wave length, Thermal
conductivity, Specific heat capacity, Latent heat, thermal expansion coefficient of the work
piece.

Spectral Power Density

Power spectral density is defined as the optical power per optical frequency (or wavelength)
interval in mW / THz or mW / nm. Optical power spectral distribution is concerned; there is a
wide range of quantities which are related to each other.

Laser power requirements for machining processes:

Welding:
Low peak power pulses of 10-3 to 10-2 s width of power density 103 to 105 W/mm2 .
Drilling:
High peak power short pulses of 10-4 to 10-3s width and power density 105 to 107
W/mm2 .
Heat treatment: Laser in CW and power density 103 to 104 W/mm2

Laser Processing set up:

When laser beam is used for applications like soldering, drilling , cutting, heat
treatment etc, a proper choice of the laser has to be done along with the following factors.

Focussing the Laser beam:

It consists of beam delivery optics, focusing lens and gas delivery nozzle, which is usually
assembled coaxially with laser beam. Two jets of gas are possibly delivered by the nozzle: one to
the laser spot to remove the melted metal and the other to the surrounding of laser beam to
prevent oxidation as shielding gas. The head is positioned to ensure that the laser beam is
incident perpendicular to the surface of the workpiece. The gap between the nozzle and surface
of workpiece must be maintained constant and at a specified stand-off distance.
Workpiece positioning
The relative motion between laser beam and workpiece can be achieved by either moving the
workpiece only, or moving cutting head only or moving both cutting head and workpiece (hybrid
system).
Flying optics: the relative movement of the laser spot can be achieved by moving only mirrors
and the focusing lens while the workpiece remains stationery for remote cutting without gas .

Pretreatment of the surface by laser:

 Coating adhesion is the most important in-service coating property, which in most cases
is achieved by the mechanical anchoring of the coating onto a roughened substrate surface.
Therefore, substrate preparation is required to provide suitable surface conditions for coating
anchoring. The most commonly used pretreatment before thermal spraying consists of surface
degreasing using solvents followed by grit blasting with a-alumina white corundum. However,
this two-step method is time consuming, not environmentally friendly and has other potential
drawbacks. However, laser processes are the only ones that can be applied to water-sensitive
materials. Among laser pretreatments, ablation of the substrate (a few milliseconds before it is
impacted by sprayed particles) proved to achieve similar tensile adhesion values to those
obtained after conventional surface preparation . Indeed, using optical fibers, a local
simultaneous treatment can be implemented to limit the heated area to the one impinged by
plasma-sprayed particles, thus preventing undesired surface modifications in the surrounding
areas. It has been proved that the local oxidation after laser preheating (if any) is also minimized
to a thickness of few nanometers, which does not affect the coating adhesion. Different coating
properties can be optimized selecting adequate processing parameters (laser beam energy,
wavelength, continuous/pulsed, etc.). For instance, porosity, hardness, and adhesion can be
significantly modified by implementing a laser heating pretreatment. Further improvement of the
adhesion was achieved by combining laser ablation process and local laser heating, particularly
in the case of cold spray.

Oxidation:

Laser machining:

Machining refers to the removal of material from a work piece in the form of chips. It is
also called "metal cutting" when referring to metal. There are three main categories of
machining:

Abrasive :These include grinding, polishing which cause material removal by the action of
rubbing propelled by the release of abrasive particles.

Cutting: These processes include milling, turning, drilling which remove metal by the action of
a rotating tool against a stationery work piece or vice-versa.

Nontraditional: These use nontraditional techniques like electricity, chemicals, lasers, or water
to cut away material

Generally speaking, Laser Machining processes include laser drilling, laser cutting and
laser grooving, marking or scribing. Laser machining is not programmed like traditional
cutting/milling equipment requiring speeds and feeds, but instead is driven directly from digital
CAD data

Laser heat treatment:

Laser hardening can be used to locally improve the wear resistance and service life of parts for a
wide variety of applications from press forming tools to oil drilling equipment. The technology is
especially suitable for selective hardening of complex shaped parts, bores or edges, and
applications where minimal heat input into the surrounding material is critical. Lasers can also be
used for locally softening / increasing the ductility of sheet metal components, which is of
particular interest for automotive applications, where improved formability for press and roll
forming operations is required in order to produce advanced lightweight automotive body panels.

Heat treating and hardening a surface with a laser is simple. Point the laser, heat the surface and
let it cool. Nd YAG lasers and series of Diode lasers are much used for Heat treatment by lasers.
 Laser technology is ideal for performing laser-transformation hardening in a manufacturing
environment because of the:

 superior heat treat characteristics,

 flexibility of the process,
 compatibility with a lean manufacturing environment,
 fast cycle time for processing the parts.

When comparing yields, operating expenses, and environmental impact, this method is the most
cost-effective laser heat-treating process.
An output wavelength of 975 nm, is highly absorptive and requires no pre-coating of the work
piece to achieve absorption. Laser heat treated parts feature greater wear resistance and, under
certain conditions, increased fatigue strength.
System Advantages

 High processing speed with negligible distortion and no pre-processing needed

 Precision heating control
 Flexibility means that it easily handles most work pieces of any shape or geometry
 Higher hardness capability without cracking or spalling
 Improvement fatigue life on drive train components and powder metal parts
 Pyrometer-based closed-loop heat treat process control

Industry applications

 Bearing Surfaces
 Forming Tools and Cutting Surfaces
 Stamping Dies and pumps
 Valve Seat and Seal Surfaces
 Hand Tools, Needles, and Pins
 Drive Train Components
 Turbine Blades
 Powder Metal Parts
 Cams and Gears

Laser Welding Metals

Laser welding is a non-contact process that requires access to the weld zone from one side of the
parts being welded •

The weld is formed as the intense laser light rapidly heats the material-typically calculated in
milli-seconds. There are typically three types of welds: – Conduction mode,
conduction/penetration mode and Penetration or keyhole mode.

Conduction mode welding is performed at low energy density forming a weld nugget that is
shallow and wide. • Conduction/penetration mode occurs at medium energy density, and shows
more penetration than conduction mode. • The penetration or keyhole mode welding is
characterized by deep narrow welds. – In this mode the laser light forms a filament of vaporized
material know as a “keyhole” that extends into the material and provides conduit for the laser
light to be efficiently delivered into the material. – This direct delivery of energy into the
material does not rely on conduction to achieve penetration, and so minimizes the heat into the
material and reduces the heat affected zone.

Due to the high absorptivity within the "keyhole" there is little operational difference when
welding with long or short wavelengths • In welding with a conduction limited weld then the
surface reflectivity becomes extremely important: – The lower reflectivity with the shorter
wavelengths gives a distinct advantage to Excimer, Nd YAG over the CO2 laser. • Shorter
wavelengths do not get absorbed quickly by plasma therefore they are more useful in welding
Laser welding has become an integral part of medical and manufacturing processes over the past
two decades, from hair and vein removal, jewellery repair and microelectronics, to ship building
and automotive assembly. The main advantages are that lasers require a low heat input compared
with other welding processes. In addition, they produce only a small heat affected zone (HAZ)
on the welded materials, the distortion produced by the welding is low and can be completed at
very high speeds.
 

There are four main weld configurations.

 Butt Welding: when the parts to be assembled all lie on the same plane.
 Fillet Lap Welding: where the edge of one material is melted to join the surface of
another material.
 Overlap Welding: where the materials lie on top of one other.
 Flange Welding: where two pieces of material are bent and their edges fused together.

Laser Drilling:

Drilling is one of the most important and successful applications of industrial lasers. Laser
drilling emerges as a viable and successful substitute for holes less than 0.25mm in diameter that
are otherwise difficult to drill mechanically, especially for hard and brittle materials, such as
ceramics and gemstones. Laser drilling of metals is used to produce tiny orifices for nozzles,
cooling channels in air turbine blades, etc. For direct hole drilling, the quality of the laser beam,
wavelength, intensity, pulse duration, pulse repetition rate are all important parameters.
Microscopic holes are produced by repeatedly pulsing focused laser energy on a material. The
diameter of these holes can be as small as 0.002”. If larger holes are required, the laser is moved
around the circumference of the “popped” hole until the desired diameter is created; this
technique is called “trepanning”.
Laser drilling of cylindrical holes generally occurs through melting and vaporization (also
referred to as "ablation") of the workpiece material through absorption of energy from a
focused laser beam.
The energy required to remove material by melting is about 25% of that needed to vaporize the
same volume, so a process that removes material by melting is often favored. Laser drilling is
done in three methods.
Single Pulse Drilling: Single-pulse (shot) drilling tackles high-speed production of blind or
through holes and delivers aspect ratios typically below 15:1. An example of single-pulse drilling
is found in the automotive industry, where it creates a scribed guideline for breaking off
(cracking) a connecting rod for diesel engines. Scribing, in effect, drills blind holes close enough
to create a notch. Another single-pulse drilling application in the automotive industry is in
manufacturing filters.
Percussion drilling: delivers successive laser pulses to the same spot and is the best trade-off
between throughput and hole quality. The process has become standard for creating cooling
holes in turbine-airfoil blades.
Trepanning Trepanned laser drilling is a method used to remove a cylindrical core, or circular
disc from a substrate. Trepanning is the standard technique for large holes, e.g. 500 micron holes
in turbine blades. It is essentially a percussion drilling process followed by a cutting procedure.
The application of nanosecond pulses to trepanning can increase the quality of the hole.

Laser marking:

Lasers can be used to create permanent color mark on a metal surface. Laser color
marking is based on surface oxidation and thin film effect and does not use any chemicals,
coatings or tools. Different colors ranging from silver and gold to blue and green can be created.