Abstract

Planar waveguide CO₂ lasers have become the preferred technology for many material processing applications because of their practical advantages in terms of high average power levels, pulsed operation at high repetition rates, excellent beam quality, ultracompact, sealed device construction and ease of computer control In ‘conventional’ operation, such lasers are restricted to pulse powers up to 2-3 times the cw/average power level, and to pulse durations in the range 100µs-cw at kHz repetition rates However, there are some important industrial applications, for example in drilling highly conductive materials, where the combination of higher peak power (kW) levels with shorter pulse duration, while preserving high repetition rates (average power), would have significant processing advantages.

© 2000 IEEE