Femtosecond Lasers

Femtosecond lasers are the shortest pulse duration laser in the industrial marketplace.   Typically, industrial femtosecond lasers will have a pulse duration of 300-400 femtoseconds or 300-400 x 10-15 s.  When trying to produce a laser that delivers such short packets of light with sufficient pulse energy to enable materials processing, the peak power is so high that it would cause damage to the gain medium.  To avoid this, the amplification of the pulse is usually done with a stretched pulse and later compressed. The process of chirped pulse amplification stretches the pulse by a few orders of magnitude so reducing peak power to allow amplification to occur below the damage threshold of the medium.  After amplification, the pulse is then compressed back to its original pulse duration and beam quality. In some lasers the need to stretch the pulse initially may not be required.

The femtosecond laser can be offered in different wavelengths including IR, green and UV (though UV is not available on every laser) via frequency conversion by non-linear optics.  With such a short pulse duration, the laser is able to machine almost any type of material from glass to hardened steel to plastics.  As the pulse duration of the laser is shorter than the conduction time of the material, there is no heat signature from processing.  The material removal is from solid to vapor – this is often referred to as “cold ablation” –  this provides the highest quality machining and offer unique machining capabilities.

News & Events - AMADA WELD TECH

News

Learn more about AMADA WELD TECH and our industry-leading products in our newsroom.

Visit the Newsroom
Learning - AMADA WELD TECH

Learning Center

An educated customer is a happy customer! Learn more about our eight different manufacturing technologies, watch a video, schedule some training or sign up for our blog in the Learning Center.

Visit the Learning Center
Support - AMADA WELD TECH

Support

Everyone needs a little help now and again. Visit the support center for technical documents, applications assistance, field service, customer service, sales assistance, software downloads and more.

Visit the Support Center