Lasers in Manufacturing: Assignment 1

Date of submission: 21.08.2019

1. A CO 2 laser operating at 10.6 μm wavelength has a beam waist of 5 mm and M2 = 9. What is

the Rayleigh range of the laser beam? It is required to cut a metal plate of 4 m length and a beam
expander is needed. For this purpose it is required that the power density would not change by
5% over a 5 m distance from the beam waist. Determine the magnification factor of the beam
expander required for this purpose.

2. The complex refractive indices of a metal at two different wavelengths of 1.06 and 10.6 μm
are 3.8–i4.5 and 6–i32, respectively. Two lasers (CO 2 and Nd:YAG laser) of 100 W are incident
on the metal surface. Estimate the laser power at a depth of 100 nm from the surface.

3. In what ways the laser wavelength and the pulse duration influence the laser processing?

4. A Nd:YAG laser beam of 1 J energy, 1ms duration, with a M2 = 10 and 6 mm beam diameter
is focused with a 100 mm focal length lens on a semi-infinite steel surface. Calculate the
a. Time for surface temperature to reach melting temperature, assuming that the average
absorptivity before melting is 20%
b. Time for the onset of melting assuming that the average absorptivity of melt up o boiling
temperature is 60%
c. Time for melt to reach the boiling temperature
d. Time for the onset of boiling
e. Show that the heat conduction loss during the above process was negligible and
assumption of 1D heat conduction was valid.
The relevant thermo-physical properties of steel are as the following:
Density=8030 kg/m3, Specific heat = 500 J/kg.oC, Melting Temperature = 1500 oC, Latent heat
of fusion= 500 kJ/kg, Boiling temperature = 3000 oC, Latent heat of vaporization = 6050 kJ/kg,
Thermal conductivity = 20 W/mK.

5. A CW Nd:YAG laser beam of 500W power is incident on a metal surface, where 50% of the
laser power is absorbed on the surface. Due to finite size of the laser beam heat is conducting
radially out as well as along the depth in the metal. Estimate the maximum diameter to which
laser beam should be focused for melting the metal up to 1 mm depth? What will be the surface
temperature under this condition? Take the thermal conductivity and melting temperature of steel
as 0.2 W/cm oC and 1500 oC respectively.

6. Germanium is being machined by Nd:YAG laser pulse of 2 J energy and 1 μs pulse duration
focused to 1 mm diameter spot. The surface reflectivity and laser beam attenuation length are
38% and 0.2 mm. Estimate the thermal diffusion length, temperature rise on the surface and at
100 μm depth.
The thermo-physical properties of germanium are as the following:
Density = 5.3 g/cm3, specific heat = 0.32 J/g.K, thermal conductivity = 60 W/m.K.

7. A 200 fs laser pulse of 100 μJ energy focused to 200 μm diameter is incident on a metal
surface. The electron-phonon thermalization time is 1 ps. The attenuation length of the laser
energy is 10 nm. Estimate the rise in surface temperature and electron temperature after the end
of the laser pulse and after about 1 ps of the laser pulse. The thermal capacity of metal and
electrons in the metal are 7×107 J/m3.K and 4×106 J/m3.K respectively.

8. Laser surface transformation hardening of a steel component is to be carried out with a 2.5 kW
CW CO 2 laser with a beam diameter of 10 mm. The surface has absorptivity of 80%. Calculate
the required laser scan speed to create a hardening depth up to 0.5 mm depth. Assume the
thermo-physical properties of the material as the following:
Thermal conductivity =20 W/moC, Thermal diffusivity = 5×10-6 m2/s, Melting temperature
=1500 oC and Phase transformation temperature = 800 oC.