REPORT: PHOTONICS WEST
POWERING UP IN SAN FRAN
Power increases across multiple laser technologies are set to bring further benefit to materials processing,Matthew Dale learnt at Photonics West
Increases in power for ultrafast lasers, green lasers and blue lasers were highlighted by experts at the Photonics West conference in San Francisco this year. Discussing the development
and use of ultrafast lasers of increasing average power was Dr Arnold Gillner, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT).
Back in 2018 it was announced at The International Laser Technology Congress, AKL, that the ILT was looking to ramp up the average power of ultrafast lasers to a staggering 20kW by 2022. For comparison, ultrafast laser manufacturers, such as Light Conversion and Amplitude Laser, are currently able to offer commercial solutions at anywhere up to 80W and 300W respectively. The institute’s work has progressed well so far, with Gillner informing Photonics West attendees that an average power of 10kW has already been achieved in the lab by the ILT and its partners. He noted that pulses ranging in duration from 10ps down to 200fs will be achievable using the developed systems. The reason for such large
power increases is so that the processing throughput of ultrafast lasers can be upscaled dramatically, enabling the
8 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE SPRING 2020
technology to be applied on an industrial scale. This will be possible by using diffractive optical elements or beam splitting optics to divide the beams of high-power ultrafast lasers into multiple, lower- power beams, which will enable larger areas of material to be processed. This makes the technology far more suitable for applications such as texturing moulds for tool production in the automotive industry, or for creating functional surfaces – such as those exhibiting hydrophobicity – on a large scale, for example on wind turbines in order to prevent ice build-up. Gillner noted that micro-drilling is another application set to benefit from such beam-splitting strategies. The ILT is currently involved in a research project in which filters are being made to remove micro plastic particles from wastewater in treatment plants. To produce the filters, ultrashort laser pulses are being used to drill holes only 10µm in
“Such large power increases will enable the processing throughput of ultrafast lasers to be upscaled dramatically”
Dr Arnold Gillner spoke on the benefits of increasing ultrafast laser power
diameter into thin metal foils, which are large enough to allow water to flow through while being small enough to filter out any micro plastic particles. The project partners are currently looking to upscale the process and make it more affordable for industrial use, and are therefore investigating the use of beam- splitting optics to create an array of more than 100 parallel beams in order to increase process throughput.
Drilling 100 holes simultaneously could introduce challenges, however, as this could lead to the melting and distortion of the filter foil. Therefore, in order to ensure that carefully aligned process parameters and suitable processing strategies are used, the project partners are combining a process simulation
developed at Fraunhofer ILT with optimisation software from German firm OptiY. In addition, a measuring system developed in collaboration with Lunovu will be used to ensure that all the holes are all drilled correctly, and that water can flow through the filter at a normal rate.
Boosts to green and blue Anthony Prugar, of Trumpf’s laser division, was at the conference discussing the many applications of laser processing in the growing sector of e-mobility. In addition to informing attendees that the stripping and welding of copper hairpins for stators in electric motors is one of the most prominent applications for lasers right now, he also mentioned that a new application currently seen by Trumpf is the laser coating and drying of copper foils used in
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