Abstract

The copper laser is a pulsed visible laser (511 and 578 nm laser lines), which emits intense (50-500 kW), short pulses (20-60 ns) at high pulse repetition frequencies (2-32 kHz). Average power levels from commercial units range from 10-120 W whilst laboratory devices have reached 750 W. Novel unstable resonator designs have yielded near diffraction limited beams,¹ which may be efficiently amplified to powers in excess of 2 kW.² The CVL operates in a unique laser parameter space and consequently has shown new and interesting results in materials processing.

© 1994 IEEE