Material micromachining using a pulsed fiber laser platform with fine temporal nanosecond pulse shaping capability

We report on recent advances in laser material processing using a novel pulsed fiber laser platform providing pulse shape agility at the nanosecond time scale and at high repetition rates. The pulse shapes can be programmed with a time resolution of 2.5 ns and with an amplitude resolution of 10 bits. Depending on the desired laser performances, the pulses are generated either by directly modulating the drive current of a seed laser diode or by modulating the output of a seed laser diode operated in CW with electro-optic modulators. The pulses are amplified in an amplifier chain in a MOPA configuration. Advanced polarization maintaining LMA fiber designs enable output energy per pulse up to 60 μJ at 1064 nm at a repetition rate of 200 kHz with excellent beam quality (M²< 1.1) and narrow line widths suitable for efficient frequency conversion. Micro-milling experiments were carried out with stainless steel, in which processing microstructures of a few tens of microns in size usually represents a challenge, and aluminum, whose thermal conductivity is about 20 times higher than stainless steel. The results obtained with two metals having very different thermal properties using different pulse shapes with durations varying between 3 ns and 80 ns demonstrate the benefits of using lasers offering flexible pulse durations and controllable pulse intensity profiles for rapidly optimizing a process in different applications while using the same laser with respect to conventional methods based on pulsed laser with fixed pulse shapes. Numerous applications are envisioned in a near future, like the micromachining of multi-layered structures, in particular when working with the harmonics of the laser.