IC8 - kW-PikoDisk

Ultrashort pulse lasers (USP lasers) are versatile tools that are gaining increasing importance in industrial manufacturing processes, particularly in the field of electromobility.

Through the use of USP lasers, a wide range of manufacturing processes involving various materials (including metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and transparent materials such as glass) can be carried out with the highest precision in the micron range.

Currently available USP lasers with pulse durations in the range of < 10 ps are limited in their average power to a few hundred watts. Since production speed scales with average power, there is a growing demand for USP lasers with higher average power and maximum pulse energy. This would enable significantly shorter process times in industrial manufacturing.

Aim and approach

The aim of this project is to investigate the limitations of a disk laser multipass amplifier with ultrashort pulses in terms of its average power (> 1 kW) while maintaining a high pulse energy (> 10 mJ).

To achieve this, a disk laser multipass amplifier will be constructed, which will allow operation in different atmospheres (helium, low-pressure air, normal-pressure air). Due to the high peak power of the pulses, an influence of the respective gas on the laser beam of the multipass amplifier is expected. This relationship will be experimentally investigated.