Applications for ultrashort-pulse laser surface processing

Ultrashort-pulse (USP) lasers deliver photons to the workpiece that are capable, if delivered correctly, of imparting little or no heat to the process. This is the major benefit of working in this pulse length regime. In the last 20 years, USP lasers have taken off as an industrial processing tool, focusing on cutting and drilling applications, especially those where the required end product could not be achieved with longer pulse-length lasers, or where significant and costly post-laser processing was required. Currently, a number of different surface application areas are being investigated and even used in production environments. One important laser application area is additive manufacturing. USP lasers are not generally thought of as the laser to use for this process, since their virtue is no heat, but they are being investigated for direct laser-assisted deposition to produce precise or sensitive parts and they are also being used for precision post-processing of laser-assisted manufactured parts.