Abstract

Beam-to-material interaction is more efficient at shorter wavelengths. This is due to the lower material reflectivity and lower plasma absorption by inverse bremsstrahlung. These features makes the CO laser (5 µm band) more advantageous in terms of materials processing with respect to the CO₂ laser (10.6 µm). Although the basic disadvantage of the CO laser is the necessary cryogenic gas cooling, there are efforts directed towards efficient operation of CO lasers at room-temperature.¹ In near future, it is not a distant possibility to have CO lasers operating as simply as CO₂ lasers do.

© 1995 IEEE