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.

High-Power Single-Spatial-Mode GaSb Tapered Laser around 2.0 μm with Very Small Lateral Beam Divergence

We report high-power single-spatial-mode type-I GaSb-based tapered lasers fabricated on the InGaSb/AlGaAsSb material system. A straight ridge and three different tapered waveguide structures with varying flare angles are fabricated to optimize the output power and spatial-mode performance. The best devices exhibit single-spatial-mode operation with room-temperature output power up to 350？mW in continuous-wave mode at an emission wavelength around 2.0？μm with a very small far-field lateral divergence angle, which is beyond state of the art in terms of single-spatial-mode output power.

A new method for measuring the pulse-front distortion of arbitrary shapes in high-power ultrashort laser systems

We present a new method that can be used to calculate pulse-front distortion by measuring the spectral interference of two point-diffraction fields in their overlapped district. We demonstrate, for the first time, the measurement of the pulse-front distortion of the pulse from a complex multi-pass amplification system, which exists in almost all high-power laser systems, and obtain the irregular pulse-front distribution. The method presented does not need any reference light or assumption about the pulse-front distribution, and has an accuracy of several femtoseconds.

High-Power Passively Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser at 1112 nm with a Cr^(4+):YAG Saturable Absorber

A high-power passively Q-switched Nd：YAG laser operating at lll2nm with Cr4＋：yAO as a saturable absorber is demonstrated. Under 808 nm diode-direct pumping, the maximum average output power of 2.73 W is achieved at the pump power of 16.65 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 16.4%. At the same time, the pulse width, pulse repetition rate, single pulse energy and peak power are 27.2ns, 9 kHz, 303.3#3 and 11.2kW, respectively. As far as we know, the result gives the highest average output power at 1112nm generated by an 808 nm diode-end-pumped Nd：YAG laser.

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.

High-Power Continuous-Wave and Acousto-Optical Q-Switched Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5 Laser Pumped by Laser Diode

We experimentally investigate the continuous-wave(cw)and acousto-optical(AO)Q-switched performance of a diode-pumped Ho:(Sc_(0.5)Y_(0.5))_2SiO_5(Ho:SYSO)laser.A fiber-coupled laser diode at 1.91m is employed as the pump source.The cw Ho:SYSO laser produces 13.0 W output power at 2097.9 nm and 56.0%slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power.In the AO Q-switched regime,at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz,the Ho:SYSO laser yields 2.1 mJ pulse energy and 21 ns pulse width,resulting in a calculated peak power of 100 k W.In addition,at the maximum output level,the beam quality factor of the Q-switched Ho:SYSO laser is measured to be about 1.6.

Formation of choroidal neovascularization under macular fovea after high-power laser irradiation: a case report

Dear Editor,I am Dr.Shan-Shan Li,from Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital,Yangzhou,China.I write to present the case of formation of choroidal neovascularization(CNV)under the fovea after high-power laser irradiation.Currently,there is an increasing availability and accessibility to laser instruments,but improper use of these tools can lead to macular damage and irreversible visual impairment.

An accurate and stable method of array element tiling for high-power laser facilities

Due to laser-induced damage, the aperture of optics is one of the main factors limiting the output capability of highpower laser facilities. Because of the general difficulty in achieving large-aperture optics, an alternative solution is to tile some small-aperture ones together. We propose an accurate, stable, and automatic method of array element tiling and verify it on a double-pass 1 × 2 tiled-grating compressor in the XG-III laser facility. The test results show the accuracy and stability of the method. This research provides an efficient way to obtain large-aperture optics for high-power laser facilities.

High-Power Dual-End-Pumped Actively Q-Switched Ho:YAG Ceramic Laser

We present a high-power Ho：YAG ceramic laser pumped at 1908nm. Using a dual-end-pumped structure, the maximum continuous-wave output power of 48 W is obtained, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 70.4% with respect to the absorbed pump power. At actively Q-switched mode, the maximum average output power of 46 W and the minimum pulse width of 21 ns are achieved at a pulse repetition frequency of 20 kHz, corresponding to a peak power of approximately 109.5kW. In addition, the beam-quality M2 factor is found to be 1.4 at the maximum output power.

High-Power Continuous-Wave Nd:GdVO4 Solid-State Laser Dual-End-Pumped at 880 nm

A high-power cw all-solid-state Nd：GdVO4 laser operating at 88Onto is reported. The laser consists of a low doped level Nd：GdV04 crystal dual-end-pumped by two high-power diode lasers and a compact negative confocM unstable-stable hybrid resonator. At an incident pump power of 820 W, a maximum cw output of 240 W at 1064nm is obtained. The optical-to-optical efficiency and Mope efficiency are 40.7% and 53.2%, respectively. The M2 factors in the unstable direction and in the stable direction are 4.38 and 5.44, respectively.

High-Power and High-Efficiency Operation of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers at 3.3 THz

A high-power and high-effciency GaAs/A1GaAs-based terahertz （THz） quantum cascade laser structure emitting at 3.3 THz is presented. The structure is based on a hybrid bound-to-continuum transition and resonant-phonon extraction active region combined with a semi-insulating surface-plasmon waveguide. By optimizing material structure and device processing, the peak optical output power of 758mW with a threshold current density of 120 A/cm2 and a wall-plug effciency of 0.92% at 10K and 404mW at 77K are obtained in pulsed operation. The maximum operating temperature is as high as llS K. In the cw mode, a record optical output power of 160roW with a threshold current density of 178A/cm2 and a wall-plug efficiency of 1.32% is achieved at 1OK.

Phase transition model of water flow irradiated by high-energy laser in a chamber

In the absorption chamber of a high-energy laser energy meter, water is directly used as an absorbing medium and the interaction of the high-power laser and the water flow can produce a variety of physical phenomena such as phase transitions. The unit difference method is adopted to deduce the phase transition model for water flow irradiated by a high-energy laser. In addition, the model is simulated and verified through experiments. Among them, the experimental verification uses the photographic method, shooting the distribution and the form of the air mass of water flow in different operating conditions, which are compared with the simulation results. The research shows that it is achievable to reduce the intensity of the phase transition by increasing the water flow, reducing the power intensity of the beam, shortening the distance the beam covers, reducing the initial water temperature or adopting a shorter wavelength laser. The study＇s results will provide the reference for the design of a water-direct-absorption-type high-energy laser energy meter as well as an analysis of the interaction processes of other similar high-power lasers and water flow.

Effect of the high-power electromagnetic pulses on the reactivity of the coal-water slurry in hot environment

An effect of the high-power electromagnetic pulses onto the droplet of coal-water slurry inside the furnace was investigated.In contrary to the previously investigated laser-induced fuel atomization that occurs at the room temperature,the pre-heated(to 400 K)slurry becomes dry enough to prevent the explosion-like steam formation.Thus,fuel does not atomize and the ignition does not accelerate.Furthermore,the absorption of several laser pulses leads to evident sintering of irradiated surface with following increase of the ignition delay time for up to 24%.Variation of the pulse energy in range 48-118 mJ(corresponding intensity up to 2.4 J·cm^-2)leads to certain variation of the increase of ignition delay.The strong pulsed overheating of the coal water slurry which does not initiate the fine atomization of the fuel generally makes its ignition longer.

Random pinhole attenuator for high-power laser beams

The intensity attenuation of a high-power laser is a frequent task in the measurements of optical science.Laser intensity can be attenuated by inserting an optical element,such as a partial reflector,polarizer or absorption filter.These devices are,however,not always easily applicable,especially in the case of ultra-high-power lasers,because they can alter the characteristics of a laser beam or become easily damaged.In this study,we demonstrated that the intensity of a laser beam could be effectively attenuated using a random pinhole attenuator(RPA),a device with randomly distributed pinholes,without changing the beam properties.With this device,a multi-PW laser beam was successfully attenuated and the focused beam profile was measured without any alterations of its characteristics.In addition,it was confirmed that the temporal profile of a laser pulse,including the spectral phase,was preserved.Consequently,the RPA possesses significant potential for a wide range of applications.

High-power, high-energy Ho:YAG oscillator pumped by a Tm-doped fiber laser

high-power, high-energy Ho：YAG oscillator resonantly pumped by a Tm-doped fiber laser is presented. A maximum continuous output power of 38 W with a slope efficiency of 51.9% is achieved at the wavelength of 2.09 μm, and M2≈1.48. In the Q-switching regime, the maximum pulse energy of 12.8 mJ, corresponding to a 514.5 kW peak power, is obtained at the pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz. Furthermore, the thermal lens effect of the system is studied theoretically, and the radius of the transverse electromagnetic（TEM_（00）） mode of the laser crystal under different pump powers is given.

High-energy laser facility PHELIX at GSI:latest advances and extended capabilities

The high-energy/high-intensity laser facility PHELIX of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt,Germany,has been in operation since 2008.Here,we review the current system performance,which is the result of continuous development and further improvement.Through its versatile frontend architecture,PHELIX can be operated in both long-and short-pulse modes,corresponding to ns-pulses with up to 1 kJ pulse energy and sub-ps,200 J pulses,respectively.In the short-pulse mode,the excellent temporal contrast and the control over the wavefront make PHELIX an ideal driver for secondary sources of high-energy ions,neutrons,electrons and X-rays.The long-pulse mode is mainly used for plasma heating,which can then be probed by the heavy-ion beam of the linear accelerator of GSI.In addition,PHELIX can now be used to generate X-rays for studying exotic states of matter created by heavy-ion heating using the ion beam of the heavy-ion synchrotron of GSI.

High-power continuous-wave and high-energy Q-switched miniature Yb:Y_3Ga_5O_(12) crystal lasers

We report on the continuous-wave （CW） and passive Q-switching performance of a miniature Yb：Y3Ga5012 crystal laser end pumped by a 935-nm diode laser. A maximum CW output power of 12.03 W is produced with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 54.4%, while the slope efficiency is 63%. In the passively Q-switched operation achieved with a Cra＋：YAG saturable absorber, an average output power of 2.12 W at 1025.2 nm is generated with a slope efficiency of 46% at a pulse repetition rate of 5.0 kHz. The pulse＇s energy, duration, and peak power are 424 μ J, 2.3 as, and 184.3 kW, respectively.

High-power femtosecond laser generation from an all-fiber linearly polarized chirped pulse amplifier

An all-fiber high-power linearly polarized chirped pulse amplification(CPA)system is experimentally demonstrated.Through stretching the pulse duration to a full width of approximately 2 ns with two cascaded chirped fiber Bragg gratings(CFBGs),a maximum average output power of 612 W is achieved from a high-gain Yb-doped fiber that has a core diameter of 20μm with a slope efficiency of approximately 68%at the repetition rate of 80 MHz.At the maximum output power,the polarization degree is 92.5%and the M^(2)factor of the output beam quality is approximately 1.29;the slight performance degradations are attributed to the thermal effects in the main amplifier.By optimizing the B-integral of the amplifier and finely adjusting the higher-order dispersion of one of the CFBGs,the pulse width is compressed to 863 fs at the highest power with a compression efficiency of 72%,corresponding to a maximum compressed average power of 440.6 W,single pulse energy of 5.5μJ and peak power of about 4.67 MW.To the best of our knowledge,this is the highest average power of a femtosecond laser directly generated from an all-fiber linearly polarized CPA system.

Status and development of high-power laser facilities at the NLHPLP

In this paper, we review the status of the multifunctional experimental platform at the National Laboratory of High Power Laser and Physics(NLHPLP). The platform, including the SG-II laser facility, SG-II 9th beam, SG-II upgrade(SG-II UP) facility, and SG-II 5 PW facility, is operational and available for interested scientists studying inertial confinement fusion(ICF) and a broad range of high-energy-density physics. These facilities can provide important experimental capabilities by combining different pulse widths of nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond scales. In addition, the SG-II UP facility, consisting of a single petawatt system and an eight-beam nanosecond system, is introduced including several laser technologies that have been developed to ensure the performance of the facility. Recent developments of the SG-II 5 PW facility are also presented.

Conceptual design of the Kumgang laser: a high-power coherent beam combination laser using SC-SBS-PCMs towards a Dream laser

In this review paper, we introduce a self-phase controlled stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirror(SCSBS-PCM) and the Kumgang laser. The SC-SBS-PCM was proposed and demonstrated its success at the academic low power level, ~100 mJ@10 Hz. The Kumgang laser is under development to verify whether the SC-SBS-PCM is operable at the k W level. It is a 4 kW beam combination laser combining four 1 k W beams using the SC-SBS-PCM. If the Kumgang laser functions successfully, it will be the most important step towards a Dream laser, a hypothetical laser with unlimited power and a high repetition rate.