Industrial applications of a fiber-based high-average-power picosecond laser

Presently lasers are well established tools for materials processing due to advantages such as (i) the non-contact nature of the laser-material interaction, (ii) the high precision achievable and (iii) no requirement for high vacuum equipment or costly chemicals. Now, industrial laser users demand improvements in order to achieve higher quality features with reduced heat affected zones and so it is increasingly necessary to use shorter pulse durations. To satisfy these needs, there has been significant research into ultrafast laser technology for decades, however at this time, these lasers have yet to be adopted by industry for mass production. Recent developments have shown that the combination of a fibre seed oscillator and Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) amplifying technology can offer high average power, picosecond pulses (~10ps) in an industrially-rugged package. The significant laser design aspects are outlined here, along with the advantages this technology offers for applications such as silicon via drilling, thin film patterning and the machining of wide bandgap materials.