Analysis of high-power disk laser welding stability based on classification of plume and spatter characteristics

Classification of plume and spatter images was studied to evaluate the welding stability. A high-speed camera was used to capture the instantaneous images of plume and spatters during high power disk laser welding. Characteristic parameters such as the area and number of spatters, the average grayscale of a spatter image, the entropy of a spatter grayscale image, the coordinate ratio of the plume centroid and the welding point, the polar coordinates of the plume centroid were defined and extracted. Karhunen-Loeve transform method was used to change the seven characteristics into three primary characteristics to reduce the dimensions. Also, K-nearest neighbor method was used to classify the plume and spatter images into two categories such as good and poor welding quality. The results show that plume and spatter have a close relationship with the welding stability, and two categories could be recognized effectively using K-nearest neighbor method based on Karhunen-Loeve transform.

Study of Dynamic Features of Surface Plasma in High-Power Disk Laser Welding

High-speed photography was used to obtain the dynamic changes in the surface plasma during a high-power disk laser welding process. A color space clustering algorithm to extract the edge information of the surface plasma region was developed in order to improve the accuracy of image processing. With a comparative analysis of the plasma features, i.e., area and height, and the characteristics of the welded seam, the relationship between the surface plasma and the stability of the laser welding process was characterized, which provides a basic understanding for the real-time monitoring of laser welding.

Analysis of Laser-Induced Plume During Disk Laser Welding at Different Speeds

During high power disk laser welding, the high-speed photography was used to measure the dynamic images of the laser-induced plume at different laser welding speeds. Various plume features （area, height and brightness） were extracted from the images by the color space clustering algorithm. Combined with observation on the surface and the cross sections of welding samples, the effect of welding speed on welding stability was analyzed. From the experimental results, it was found that these features of plume could reflect the welding state. Thus changes of the plume features corresponded to different welding speeds, which was helpful for monitoring the laser welding stability.

Elucidation of Metallic Plume and Spatter Characteristics Based on SVM During High-Power Disk Laser Welding

During deep penetration laser welding,there exist plume（weak plasma） and spatters,which are the results of weld material ejection due to strong laser heating.The characteristics of plume and spatters are related to welding stability and quality.Characteristics of metallic plume and spatters were investigated during high-power disk laser bead-on-plate welding of Type 304 austenitic stainless steel plates at a continuous wave laser power of 10 kW.An ultraviolet and visible sensitive high-speed camera was used to capture the metallic plume and spatter images.Plume area,laser beam path through the plume,swing angle,distance between laser beam focus and plume image centroid,abscissa of plume centroid and spatter numbers are defined as eigenvalues,and the weld bead width was used as a characteristic parameter that reflected welding stability.Welding status was distinguished by SVM（support vector machine） after data normalization and characteristic analysis.Also,PCA（principal components analysis） feature extraction was used to reduce the dimensions of feature space,and PSO（particle swarm optimization） was used to optimize the parameters of SVM.Finally a classification model based on SVM was established to estimate the weld bead width and welding stability.Experimental results show that the established algorithm based on SVM could effectively distinguish the variation of weld bead width,thus providing an experimental example of monitoring high-power disk laser welding quality.

Progress of optically pumped GaSb based semiconductor disk laser

This paper reviewed the development of optically pumped GaSb based semiconductor disk lasers （SDLs） emission at 2 μm wavelength region from the aspects of wavelength extending, power scaling, line-width narrowing and short-pulse generation. Most recently, the wavelength of GaSb based SDLs has been extended to 2.8 μm. The highest output power of the GaSb based SDLs has been reached to 17 W at the temperature of 20 ℃. By using active stabilization, the GaSb based SDL with line-width of 20 kHz and output power of 1 W was realized. Moreover, the shortest pulse obtained fromthe GaSb based SDLs was generated as short as 384 fs by incorporating semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors（SESAM） in the cavity.

Spectral Feature Analysis of Semiconductor Thin Disk Laser

The semiconductor thin disk laser is a new type of semiconductor laser. This work gives the basic operation function of the semiconductor disk laser, and analyses the heat effect by the experimentally measured photoluminescence spectrum of the laser chip at different pump power and different temperatures. We can see that: with increasing pump power, the thermal effect of the gain material becomes seriously and causes the saturation of carrier lifetime, so the electron-hole pair created in the absorbtion layer has no enough time to rate to one of the wells, and the non-radiative recombination happens in the barrier. When the thermal effect becomes stronger, the chip will be not lasing. This phenomenon is from the smaller energy offset between barrier and quantum well. We optimize the original structure design and experimental technology. A non-absorbing AlGaAs layer which is transparent to the pumping and laser wavelength is added to confine the carriers in the quantum wells. At the same time a DBR with double reflecting band is induced to improve the absorbing efficiency of the pumping light. The single QW is replaced by the three narrow QWs. This three QWs structure can add the quantum state of QW, increase the recombination probability of carriers in the QWs and reduce the heat effect. The chemical etching equipment is also improved to control the surface unevenness to be within 50 nm.

Compression of the self-Q-switching in semiconductor disk lasers with single-layer graphene saturable absorbers

We demonstrate the first use of single layer graphene for compressing self-Q-switching pulses in semiconductor disk lasers. The gain region of the semiconductor disk laser used InGaAs quantum wells with a central wavelength of 1030 nm. Due to self saturable absorption of the quantum wells, the disk laser emitted at the self-Q-switching state with a pulse width of 13 μs. By introducing the single layer graphene as a saturable absorber into the V-shaped laser cavity, the pulse width of the self-pulse was compressed to 2 μs with a lower pump power of 300 mW. As the pump power was increased, multiple pulses with the pulse width of 1.8 μs appeared. The compression factor was about 7.2.

High quality 2-μm GaSb-based optically pumped semiconductor disk laser grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The epitaxial growth conditions and performance of a diode-pumped GaSb-based optically pumped semiconductor disk laser(SDL) emitting near 2.0 μm in an external cavity configuration are reported. The high quality epitaxial structure,grown on Te-doped(001) oriented GaSb substrate by molecular beam epitaxy, consists of a distributed Bragg reflector(DBR), a multi-quantum-well gain region, and a window layer. An intra-cavity SiC heat spreader was attached to the gain chip for effective thermal management. A continuous-wave output power of over 1 W operating at 2.03 μm wavelength operating near room temperature was achieved using a 3% output coupler.

A 12.1-W SESAM mode-locked Yb:YAG thin disk laser

Pumped by a 940 nm fiber-coupled diode laser, a passively mode-locked Yb：YAG thin disk oscillator was demonstrated with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror（SESAM）. 12.1 W mode-locked pulses were obtained with pulse duration of 698 fs at the repetition rate of 57.43 MHz. Measurement showed that the beam quality was close to the diffraction limit.

High power disk laser

The mono-module disk laser concept is an effective design for diode-pumped solid-state lasers, which allows the realization of lasers with super-high output power, having very good efficiency and also excellent beam quality. Since the first demonstration of the principle in 1964 the output power of mono-module disk has been increased to the level of few kW in continuous wave (CW) mode of operation. “Zig-Zag” disk laser geometry does not look like as a perspective one for further output parameters growing. The scaling laws for mono-module disk laser design show that the limits for CW mode of operation are far beyond 100 kW for output power and the energy can be higher than 100 J in pulsed mode of operation. Due to the efficient porous cooling technology and possibility of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression the operation of the mono-module disk laser geometry is possible in CW and pulse-periodical (P-P) modes at extremely high output power.

Adjustable-free and movable Nd:YVO_(4) thin disk laser based on the telecentric cat's eye cavity

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate an adjustable-free and movable Nd:YVO_(4)thin disk laser based on the telecentric cat’s eye cavity. We design a V-shaped laser cavity containing two reflectors with Nd:YVO_(4)thin disks as the gain medium.The experimental results from the traditional plane-plane cavity, plane-telecentric cat’s eye cavity, and double telecentric cat’s eye cavity are compared. They show that plane-telecentric cat’s eye cavity laser can keep operating at the adjustablefree range of -6° to +6°, which is up to 60 times better than that of traditional plane-plane cavity. In the double telecentric cat’s eye case, the adjustable-free range is improved to-13° to +13°. Additionally, in the case of the double telecentric cat’s eye cavity, the output telecentric cat’s eye can achieve free movement within the horizontal range of ±20 mm.

High-power operation of double-pass pumped Nd:YVO4 thin disk laser

A simple,compact,double-pass pumped Nd:YVO4 thin disk laser is demonstrated.Its continuous-wave performance with different Nd doping concentrations and thicknesses is investigated experimentally.The maximum output power of 17.7 W is achieved by employing a 0.5 at.%doped sample,corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 46% with respect to the absorbed pump power.In addition,a numerical analysis and an experimental study of the temperature distribution,and thermal lens effect of the Nd:YVO4 thin disk,are presented considering the influence of the energy transfer upconversion effect and the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity tensor.The simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Intracavity third-harmonic generation in a continuous-wave/self-mode-locked semiconductor disk laser

The high peak power of picosecond pulses produced by a self-mode-locked semiconductor disk laser can effectively improve the efficiency of nonlinear frequency conversion.This paper presents the intracavity frequency tripling in a self-mode-locked semiconductor disk laser,and a picosecond pulse train at 327 nm wavelength is achieved.The pulse repetition rate is 0.49 GHz,and the pulse width is 5.0 ps.The obtained maximum ultraviolet output power under mode locking is 30.5 m W,and the corresponding conversion efficiency is obviously larger than that of continuous-wave operation.These ultraviolet picosecond pulses have high spatial and temporal resolution and can be applied in some emerging fields.

Wavelength-tunable multi-point pump semiconductor disk laser based on an intra-cavity transmission grating

We report a wavelength-tunable multi-point pump scheme of the semiconductor disk lasers(SDLs).By designing an external cavity of SDL with an intra-cavity transmission grating,multiple pump gain regions share the same resonator.The effect of the intra-cavity grating on the output laser power,wavelength,and beam quality was investigated.The emission wavelength could be tuned over a bandwidth of~18 nm.With multi-point pumping,we achieve the laser output power with almost no loss,and further improvement is limited by the thermal effect.The changes in the beam are due to the mode selectivity by the intra-cavity grating.

二极管泵浦Yb:YAG Thin Disk激光器获得16 W连续激光输出

近年来，Ｙｂ：ＹＡＧ激光研究已被视为发展高效、高功率二极管泵浦固体激光器的一个主要方向．本文简要分析了 Ｙｂ ＹＡＧ作为增益介质优于 Ｎｄ ＹＡＧ的性质，阐述Ｔｈｉｎ Ｄｉｓｋ激光器的原理，并介绍了我们在国内首次获得 １６ Ｗ连续激光（波长 １０３０ ｎｍ）输出的二极管泵浦 Ｙｂ：ＹＡＧ Ｔｈｉｎ Ｄｉｓｋ激光器装置及数据．

二极管泵浦Yb:YAG Thin Disk激光器光束质量及V型腔腔内倍频的研究

Thin Disk激光器由于其独特的设计可以同时获得高转换效率和光束质量。对Yb:YAG Thin Disk激光器中泵浦光斑与腔模的耦合对光束质量的影响作了分析,并在普通直腔和V型腔的实验中分别获得M^2=1.15,13.69W和M^2=1.12,13.85W的1030nm激光输出,还在V型腔中进行了腔内倍频的实验研究。

A Kilowatt Diode-Pumped Solid-State Heat-Capacity Double-Slab Laser

A kilowatt diode-pumped solid state heat capacity laser is fabricated with a double-slab Nd：YAG. Using the theoretical model of heat capacity laser output laser characteristics, the relationships between the output power, temperature and time are obtained. The slab is 59 × 40×4.5mm^3 in size. The average pump power is 11.2kW, the repetition rate is i kHz, and the duty cycle is 20%. During the running time of i s, the output energy of the laser has a fluctuation with the maximal output energy at 2.06 J, and the maximal output average power is 2.06kW. At the end of the second, the output energy declines to about 50% compared to the beginning. The therma/effects can be improved with one slab cooled by water. The experimental results are consistent with the calculation data.

二极管泵浦Yb：YAG thin disk激光器调谐及腔内倍频的研究

研究了半导体激光二极管泵浦Yb:YAG薄片激光器的调谐和腔内倍频.通过在激光谐振腔内插入石英双折射滤光片,对激光中心波长进行调谐,调谐范围为1020.5nm到1034.7nm;采用折叠腔,使用Ⅰ类临界相位匹配的LBO晶体腔内倍频,室温下得到2.5W连续515nm绿光输出,1小时内绿光最大输出功率的波动小于1%.

Detection of Influenza Viruses Attached to an Optical Disk

Detection of polystyrene beads with a diameter of 100 nm was conducted using an optical disk drive tester equipped with a laser of 405 nm wavelength and an objective lens with a numerical aperture of 0.65. The polystyrene beads were used to mimic the influenza virus. A grooved disk with a (ZnS)85(SiO2)15/SiO2 layered surface structure was used for the detection. The detection of influenza viruses (A/Udorn/307/1972) with Au nanoparticles was also demonstrated using the optical disk drive tester. In this case, a grooved disk with an indium tin oxide (ITO) film was used. The ITO film functioned both to tune the reflectance of the disk and as an electrically conductive layer for scanning electron microscopy. In both cases, the target substances were successfully recognized in a single scan with a high scanning speed of 4.9 m/s. The results indicate that this optical disk system can be used to detect 100 nm scale substances like influenza viruses, which are smaller than the diffraction limit of the system.

A Measuring Solution for Mechanical Characteristics of MO Disks

Mechanical characteristics of MO disk are vital for the designer of the drives and the manufacturers who provide the mass-product MO disks. So measuring mechanical characteristics is very significant. We compares the existing measuring methods and gives some novel measuring methods we adopted in details. The measuring system based upon these methods was introduced too. Some typical measuring results are also shown in this paper.