Grain refining in weld metal using short-pulsed laser ablation during CW laser welding of 2024-T3 aluminum alloy

The 2024 aluminum alloy is used extensively in the aircraft and aerospace industries because of its excellent mechanical properties.However,the weldability of 2024 aluminum alloy is generally low because it contains a high number of solutes,such as copper(Cu),magnesium(Mg),and manganese(Mn),causing solidification cracking.If high speed welding of 2024 aluminum alloy without the use of filler is achieved,the applicability of 2024 aluminum alloys will expand.Grain refining is one of the methods used to prevent solidification cracking in weld metal,although it has never been achieved for high-speed laser welding of 2024 aluminum alloy without filler.Here,we propose a short-pulsed,laser-induced,grain-refining method during continuous wave laser welding without filler.Bead-on-plate welding was performed on a 2024-T3 aluminum alloy at a welding speed of 1 m min−1 with a single mode fiber laser at a wavelength of 1070 nm and power of 1 kW.Areas in and around the molten pool were irradiated with nanosecond laser pulses at a wavelength of 1064 nm,pulse width of 10 ns,and pulse energy of 430 mJ.The grain-refinement effect was confirmed when laser pulses were irradiated on the molten pool.The grain-refinement region was formed in a semicircular shape along the solid–liquid interface.Results of the vertical section indicate that the grain-refinement region reached a depth of 1 mm along the solid–liquid interface.The Vickers hardness test results demonstrated that the hardness increased as a result of grain refinement and that the progress of solidification cracking was suppressed in the grain refinement region.

Fast repetition rate fs pulsed lasers for advanced PLIM microscopy

Simultaneous metabolic and oxygen imaging is promising to follow up therapy response,dis-ease development and to determine prognostic factors.FLIM of metabolic coenzymes is now widely accepted to be the most reliable method to determine cellular bioenergetics.Also,oxygen consumption has to be taken into account to understand treatment responses.The phosphorescence lifetimne of oxygen sensors is able to indicate local oxygen changes.For phosphorescence lifetime imaging(PLIM)dyes based on ruthenium(I)coordination com-plexes are useful,in detaill TLD1433 which possesses a variety of different triplet states,enables complex photochemistry and redox reactions.PLIM is usally reached by two photon exci-tation of the drug with a femtosecond(fs)pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser working at 80 MHz repe-tition rate and(time-correlated single photon counting)(TCSPC)detection electronics.The interesting question was whether it is possible to follow up PLIM 1using faster repetition rates.Faster repetition rates could be advantageous for the induction of specific photochemical reactions because of similar light doses used normally in standard CW light treatments.For this,a default 2p-FLIM-PLIM system was expanded by adding a second fs pulsed laser("helixx")which provides 50 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 250 MHz,more than 2.3 w average power and tunable from 720 nm to 920 nm.The laser beam was coupled into the AOM instead of the default 80 MHz laser.We demonstrated siuccessful applications of the 250 MHz laser for PLIM which correlates well with measurements done by excitation with the conventional 80MHx laser source.

A new method on diagnostics of muons produced by a short pulse laser

Muons produced by a short pulse laser can serve as a new type of muon source having potential advantages of high intensity, small source emittance, short pulse duration and low cost. To validate it in experiments, a suitable muon diagnostics system is needed since high muon flux generated by a short pulse laser shot is always accompanied by high radiation background, which is quite different from cases in general muon researches. A detection system is proposed to distinguish muon signals from radiation background by measuring the muon lifetime. It is based on the scintillator detector with water and lead shields, in which water is used to adjust energies of muons stopped in the scintillator and lead to against radiation background. A Geant 4 simulation on the performance of the detection system shows that efficiency up to 52% could be arrived for low-energy muons around 200 MeV and this efficiency decreases to 14% for high-energy muons above 1000 MeV. The simulation also shows that the muon lifetime can be derived properly by measuring attenuation of the scintilla light of electrons from muon decays inside the scintillator detector.

The implementation and data analysis of an interferometer for intense short pulse laser experiments

We present an interferometry setup and the detailed fringe analysis method for intense short pulse(SP) laser experiments.The interferometry scheme was refined through multiple campaigns to investigate the effects of pre-plasmas on energetic electrons at the Jupiter Laser Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The interferometer used a frequency doubled(λ=0.527 μm) 0.5 ps long optical probe beam to measure the pre-plasma density, an invaluable parameter to better understand how varying pre-plasma conditions affect the characteristics of the energetic electrons. The hardware of the diagnostic, data analysis and example data are presented. The diagnostic setup and the analysis procedure can be employed for any other SP laser experiments and interferograms, respectively.

Effect of pulse slippage on density transition-based resonant third-harmonic generation of short-pulse laser in plasma

The resonant third-harmonic generation of a tion was investigated. Because of self-focusing self-focusing laser in plasma with a density transi- of the fundamental laser pulse, a transverse intensity gradient was created, which generated a plasma wave at the fundamental wave frequency. Phase matching was satisfied by using a Wiggler magnetic field, which provided additional angular too- mentum to the third-harmonic photon to make the process resonant. An enhancement was observed in the resonant third-harmonic generation of an intense short-pulse laser in plasma embedded with a magnetic Wiggler with a density transition. A plasma density ramp played an important role in the self-focusing, enhancing the third-harmonic generation in plasma. We also examined the ef- fect of the Wiggler magnetic field on the pulse slippage of the third-harmonic pulse in plasma. The pulse slippage was due to the group-velocity mismatch between the fundamental and third-harmonic pulses.

Self-modulation and anomalous collective scattering of laser produced intense ion beam in plasmas

The collective interaction between intense ion beams and plasmas is studied by simulations and experiments,where an intense proton beam produced by a short pulse laser is injected into a pre-ionized gas.It is found that,depending on its current density,collective effects can significantly alter the propagated ion beam and the stopping power.The quantitative agreement that is found between theories and experiments constitutes the first validation of the collective interaction theory.The effects in the interaction between intense ion beams and background gas plasmas are of importance for the design of laser fusion reactors as well as for beam physics.

Photon energy transfer on titanium targets for laser thrusters

Using two infrared pulsed lasers systems,a picosecond solid-state Nd:YAG laser with tuneable repetition rate(400 kHz-1 MHz)working in the burst mode of a multi-pulse train and a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser amplifier with tuneable pulse duration in the range of tens of femtoseconds up to tens of picoseconds,working in single-shot mode(TEWALASS facility from CETAL-NILPRP),we have investigated the optimal laser parameters for kinetic energy transfer to a titanium target for laser-thrust applications.In the single-pulse regime,we controlled the power density by changing both the duration and pulse energy.In the multi-pulse regime,the train’s number of pulses(burst length)and the pulse energy variation were investigated.Heat propagation and photon reflection-based models were used to simulate the obtained experimental results.In the single-pulse regime,optimal kinetic energy transfer was obtained for power densities of about 500 times the ablation threshold corresponding to the specific laser pulse duration.In multi-pulse regimes,the optimal number of pulses per train increases with the train frequency and decreases with the pulse power density.An ideal energy transfer efficiency resulting from our experiments and simulations is close to about 0.0015%.