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Pulse-on-demand laser operation from nanosecond to femtosecond pulses and its application for high-speed processing

  • Jaka Petelin , Luka Černe , Jaka Mur , Vid Agrež , Jernej Jan Kočica , Joerg Schille , Udo Loeschner and Rok Petkovšek EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 14, 2021
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Advanced Optical Technologies
From the journal Advanced Optical Technologies Volume 10 Issue 4-5

Abstract

In this manuscript we present a true pulse-on-demand laser design concept using two different approaches. First, we present a fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) based quasi-continuous wave (CW) laser, working at high modulation bandwidths, for generation of nanosecond pulses. Second, we present a hybrid chirped pulse amplification (CPA)-based laser, combining a chirped-pulse fiber amplifier and an additional solid-state amplifier, for generation of femtosecond pulses. The pulse-on-demand operation is achieved without an external optical modulator/shutter at high-average powers and flexible repetition rates up to 40 MHz, using two variants of the approach for near-constant gain in the amplifier chain. The idler and marker seed sources are combined in the amplifier stages and separated at the out using either wavelength-based separation or second harmonic generation (SHG)-generation-based separation. The nanosecond laser source is further applied to high throughput processing of thin film materials. The laser is combined with a resonant scanner, using the intrinsic pulse-on-demand operation to compensate the scanner’s sinusoidal movement. We applied the setup to processing of indium tin oxide (ITO) and metallic films on flexible substrates.

Keywords: arbitrary repetition rate; fiber lasers; gain control; high speed processing; pulse-on-demand
Corresponding author: Rok Petkovšek, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 6, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia, E-mail:

Funding source: Slovenian Research Agency 10.13039/501100004329

Award Identifier / Grant number: L2-9240

Award Identifier / Grant number: P2-0270

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This work was funded by Slovenian Research Agency (P2-0270) (L2-9240).

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2021-04-23
Accepted: 2021-06-25
Published Online: 2021-07-14
Published in Print: 2021-11-25

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Topical Issue: High-rate Laser Processing; Guest Editors: Jörg Schille and Udo Löschner
  3. Editorial
  4. Ultrashort pulse lasers in high-rate laser micro processing – Quo vadis?
  5. Views
  6. The challenges of productive materials processing with ultrafast lasers
  7. Review Articles
  8. High-power modelocked thin-disk oscillators as potential technology for high-rate material processing
  9. GHz femtosecond processing with agile high-power laser
  10. Research Articles
  11. High-power ultrafast fiber lasers for materials processing
  12. High-power ultrafast thin-disk multipass amplifiers for efficient laser-based manufacturing
  13. Accelerating laser processes with a smart two-dimensional polygon mirror scanner for ultra-fast beam deflection
  14. Pulse-on-demand laser operation from nanosecond to femtosecond pulses and its application for high-speed processing
  15. Multi beam microprocessing for printing and embossing applications with high power ultrashort pulsed lasers
  16. High-rate laser processing with ultrashort laser pulses by combination of diffractive elements with synchronized galvo scanning
https://doi.org/10.1515/aot-2021-0020
Keywords for this article
arbitrary repetition rate; fiber lasers; gain control; high speed processing; pulse-on-demand

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Topical Issue: High-rate Laser Processing; Guest Editors: Jörg Schille and Udo Löschner
  3. Editorial
  4. Ultrashort pulse lasers in high-rate laser micro processing – Quo vadis?
  5. Views
  6. The challenges of productive materials processing with ultrafast lasers
  7. Review Articles
  8. High-power modelocked thin-disk oscillators as potential technology for high-rate material processing
  9. GHz femtosecond processing with agile high-power laser
  10. Research Articles
  11. High-power ultrafast fiber lasers for materials processing
  12. High-power ultrafast thin-disk multipass amplifiers for efficient laser-based manufacturing
  13. Accelerating laser processes with a smart two-dimensional polygon mirror scanner for ultra-fast beam deflection
  14. Pulse-on-demand laser operation from nanosecond to femtosecond pulses and its application for high-speed processing
  15. Multi beam microprocessing for printing and embossing applications with high power ultrashort pulsed lasers
  16. High-rate laser processing with ultrashort laser pulses by combination of diffractive elements with synchronized galvo scanning
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