Showing papers in "Optics and Laser Technology in 2005"

Thermal modelling of laser welding and related processes: a literature review

Abstract: The main emphasis of this review is on thermal modelling and prediction of laser welding in metals. However as similar techniques are employed to model conventional welding processes such as arc, resistance and friction, as well as related processes such as alloying, cladding and surface hardening, part of this review is given over to the modelling of these processes where appropriate. The time frame of the review is up to the year 2002.

Optimization of Nd:YAG laser welding onto magnesium alloy via Taguchi analysis

Abstract: The use of an Nd:YAG laser for thin plate magnesium alloy butt welding was optimized using the Taguchi analytical methodology. The welding parameters governing the laser beam in thin plate butt welding were evaluated by measuring of the ultimate tension stress. The e7ectiveness of the Taguchi method lies in clarifying the factor that dominates complex interactions in laser welding. The factors can be the shielding gas, laser energy, convey speed of workpiece, point at which the laser is focused, pulse frequency, and pulse shape. Furthermore, 18 combinations of these six essential welding parameters were set and Taguchi’s method followed exactly. The optimal result was con=rmed with a superior ultimate tension stress of 169 MPa, 2.5 times larger to that from original set for laser welding. ? 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dispersion studies and electronic transitions in nickel phthalocyanine thin films

Abstract: Thin films of the organic semiconductor nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc) are structurally investigated using X-ray diffraction and infrared light absorption. The optical absorption and dispersion studies of nickel phthalocyanine were investigated using spectrophotometric measurements of transmittance and reflectance at normal incidence in the wavelength range 190–2100 nm. The absorption spectra recorded in the UV-VIS region show two well-defined absorption bands of the phthacyanine molecules, namely, the Soret and the Q-band. The Davydove splitting of the main absorption peak in the metal phthalocyanines correlates with the relative tendencies of the metal to out-of-plane bonding. The refractive index n as well as the absorption index k were calculated and showed an independent of the film thickness in the film thicknesses range 400–770 nm. The refractive index n showed an anomalous dispersion in the absorption region as well as normal dispersion in the transparent region. Some of the important optical absorption such as the molar extinction coefficient, the oscillator strength, the electric dipole strength have been evaluated. The analysis of the spectral behavior of the absorption coefficient α in the absorption region revealed two indirect allowed transitions with corresponding energies 2.77±0.03 and 1.66±0.02 eV. An energy band diagram has been proposed to account for the optical transitions of NiPc thin film. All previous parameters were as well obtained for films annealed at 523 K for 2 h. Discussion of the obtained results and their comparison with the previously published data are also given.

Improving the appearance of all textile products from clothing to home textile using laser technology

Abstract: Denim trousers, commonly known as “blue jeans”, have maintained their popularity for many years. For the purpose of supporting customers’ purchasing behaviour and to address their aesthetic taste, companies have been trying in recent years to develop various techniques to improve the visual aspects of denim fabrics. These techniques mainly include printing on fabrics, embroidery and washing the final product. Especially, fraying certain areas of the fabric by sanding and stone washing to create designs is a popular technique. However, due to certain inconveniences caused by these procedures and in response to growing demands, research is underway to obtain a similar appearance by creating better quality and more advantageous manufacturing conditions. As is known, the laser is a source of energy which can be directed on desired objects and whose power and intensity can be easily controlled. Use of the laser enables us to cut a great variety of material from metal to fabric. Starting off from this point, we thought it would be possible to transfer certain designs onto the surface of textile material by changing the dye molecules in the fabric and creating alterations in its colour quality values by directing the laser to the material at reduced intensity. This study mainly deals with a machine specially designed for making use of laser beams to transfer pictures, figures as well as graphics of desired variety, size and intensity on all kinds of surfaces in textile manufacturing such as knitted—woven fabrics, leather, etc. at desired precision and without damaging the texture of the material. In the designed system, computer-controlled laser beams are used to change the colour of the dye material on the textile surface by directing the laser beams at a desired wavelength and intensity onto various textile surfaces selected for application. For this purpose, a laser beam source that can reach the initial level of power and that can be controlled by means of a computer interface; reflecting mirrors that can direct this beam at two axes; a galvanometer which comprised of an optical aperture; and a computer program that can transfer images obtained in standard formats to the galvanometer control card were used. Developing new designs by using the computer and transferring the designs that are obtained on textile surfaces will not only increase and facilitate the production in a more practical manner, but also help you to create identical designs. This means serial manufacturing of the products at a standard quality and increasing their added values. Moreover, creating textile designs using laser will also contribute to the value of the product as far as the consumer is concerned because it will not cause any wearing off and deformation in the texture of the fabric unlike the sanding and stoning processes. Another advantage of this system is that it gives a richer look to the product by causing the textile surfaces to get wrinkled and become three-dimensional by deformation as well as enabling you to create pictures and patterns on leather and synthetic fabrics by means of heat. As for the results of the study, the first step was to prepare 40 pairs of denim trousers, half of which were prepared manually and the other half by using laser beam. Time studies were made at every step of the production. So as to determine the abrasion degrees of the trousers in design applications, tensile strength as well as tensile extension tests were conducted for all the trousers.

Correction of the image distortion for laser galvanometric scanning system

Abstract: Laser galvanometric scanning techniques are commonly used in various image display fields, such as medical imaging, laser display and material processing. The paper gives detail analyses of the image distortion involved in the galvanometric scanning. At the same time, the paper addresses the role of the correction algorithms of the image distortion. Experiment results based on SLS machine prove the efficiency of the correction algorithms.

Effects of powder concentration distribution on fabrication of thin-wall parts in coaxial laser cladding

Abstract: In this paper, model of effects of powder concentration distribution on fabrication of thin-wall parts in coaxial laser cladding was developed. There exists relationship between powder concentration distribution and power density distribution, which affects fabrication of thin-wall parts in coaxial laser cladding. Changes in powder concentration distribution lead to changes in wall thickness and wall growing rate. Fluctuation of powder feed rate deteriorates the growing wall in laser cladding. Deviation of the powder flow stream makes the powder concentration distribution, the thermal flux density and consequently the molten pool not symmetrical against the x-axis, resulting in irregular upper faces of the formed wall. This was verified by the results of experiment.

Experimental research on a novel fiber-optic cantilever-type inclinometer

Abstract: Experimental setup for tilt measurement and a novel signal detection method for demodulation of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) wavelength shift are proposed. Being attached, respectively, on the upper and lower surface of only one single pendulum-type cantilever element, only a couple of matched FBGs are used for both tilt angle sensing and wavelength shift signal demodulating. So the received light power will change due to the split of the two reflected spectra of FBGs, which corresponds to the tilt angle. In addition, the cross-sensitivity effect of FBG-based sensors will be solved automatically due to a differential signal process method. Experimental results indicate the measurement accuracy is about ± 0.03°, and measurement resolution is estimated to be about 0.002°.

A new coumarin laser dye 3-(benzothiazol-2-yl)-7-hydroxycoumarin

Abstract: The electronic absorption, and emission spectra as well as fluorescence quantum yield of 3-(benzothiazol-2-yl)-7-hydroxycoumarin (BTHC) were measured in different solvents and are affected by solvent polarity (Δf). The deprotonation of BTHC by triethylamine is a reversible process. BTHC is relatively photostable, the quantum yield of photodecomposition (φc) was found to be 2×10−4 and 2.7×10−4 in EtOH and DMF, respectively. The fluorescence lifetimes of BTHC were measured in the absence and in the presence of molecular oxygen and were found to be 2.82 and 2.78 ns , respectively. BTHC acts as good laser dye upon pumping with nitrogen laser (λ ex =337.1 nm ) in ethanol and gives laser emission with maxima at 508 and 522 nm .

A simple phase unwrapping approach based on filtering by windowed Fourier transform

Abstract: Phase unwrapping is an interesting yet challenging problem in optical interferometry. In this paper, we limit our interest to unwrapping noisy phase maps as it is a common but difficult task. Our aim is to propose a simple solution to phase unwrapping. We first remove the noise by a novel windowed Fourier transform approach and then use sequential line scanning method for phase unwrapping. This simple approach is verified to be very effective.

Study on cross-section clad profile in coaxial single-pass cladding with a low-power laser

Abstract: In this paper, a model of cross-section clad profile on the substrate in coaxial single-pass cladding with a low-power laser was studied. The static model of powder mass concentration distribution at cold-stream conditions was defined as a Gaussian function. In coaxial single-pass cladding with a low-power laser, since the influence of surface tension, gravity and gas flow on the clad bead could be neglected, the cross-section profile of the clad bead deposited by a low-power laser on the substrate was dominated by the powder concentration at each point on the pool and the time when the material was liquid at this point. The height of each point on the cross-section clad profile was defined as a definite integration of a Gaussian function from the moment at which the melt pool was just arriving at the point to the moment at which the point left the melt pool. In the presented experiment, powder of Steel 63 (at 0.63 wt% C) was deposited on a substrate of Steel 20 (at 0.20 wt% C) at the laser power of 135 W. The experimental results testified the model.

Study of the buckling mechanism in laser tube forming

Abstract: The buckling mechanism of a thin metal tube during laser forming was investigated numerically and experimentally in this study. Metal tubes made of 304 stainless steel were heated by a CO 2 Gaussian laser beam, which induced the buckling phenomenon on the tube surface due to elastic–plastic deformation. This uncoupled thermal–mechanical problem was solved using a three-dimensional finite element method and was subsequently satisfactorily verified with displacement measurements. The transient bending angle and residual stress of the thin metal tube under specific operation conditions were also studied.

Spectral and emission characteristics of LED and its application to LED-based sun-photometry

Abstract: In recent years, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have found applications in fields like space science instrumentation in addition to its use in illumination. Sun photometry is one of the techniques for measuring aerosol optical depth. Photometers generally consisting of an interference filter and a photo-detector, measures the intensity of radiation in the wavelength band of the interference filter. LED alone replaces both the interference filter and the detector and works as a spectrally selective photo-detector. The spectral response (extinction spectra) of LED is required to calculate the aerosol optical depth. In general, it is assumed that the emission spectra and spectral response should be same. It has been found experimentally that the emission spectra and spectral response are different. The peak wavelength at which the maximum emission occurs is found to be higher than the peak of the spectral response curve. The FWHM of both are also found to be different. A typical example of Langley plot obtained from the LED-based Sun photometer is shown and optical depth obtained with this is compared with the conventional Sun photometer.

High-power continuous-wave operation of a diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser at 1.34μm

Abstract: The continuous-wave laser properties of an efficient diode-pumped Nd : GdVO 4 crystal operating at 1.34 μ m formed with a simple plane-concave cavity have been studied. With the incident pump power of 21 W, an output power of 6.9 W was obtained, giving an optical conversion efficiency of 32.8% and a slope efficiency of 35.3%. The laser characterization of two different Nd 3 + -doped concentration of Nd : GdVO 4 crystals were studied.

Theoretical and experimental study of a laser-diode-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with acoustic–optic modulator

Abstract: By considering the Gaussian spatial distribution of the intracavity photon density and initial population-inversion density as well as the longitudinal distribution of the photon density along the cavity axis and turnoff time of the acoustic–optic Q-switch, the coupled equations of an LD-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YVO 4 laser with acoustic–optic modulator are given. These coupled rate equations are solved numerically on a computer, and the dependences of pulse width, single-pulse energy and peak power on incident pump power are obtained. In the experiment, a laser-diode-pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YVO 4 laser with acoustic–optic modulator is realized, and the experimental results are in fair agreement with the numerical solutions.

Gas protection optimization during Nd:YAG laser welding

Abstract: Many laser processes, such as welding or surface treatments are associated with an undesired phenomenon, which is oxidation. The solution commonly employed to solve this problem approaches the shielding gas and/or the shielding gas device. What we propose in this paper is a methodology with the goal to optimize the protection gas device design as well as the gas flow in the case of laser welding and surface treatments. The pressure created by the gas flow on the sample surface is recorded and analysed together with the operating parameters influence in order to reach the objectives. The nozzle system designed and presented below assures the protection against material oxidation using minimal gas flow rates and increases the welding penetration in the case of high-power Nd:YAG laser welding.

Two-fold interferometric measurements of piezo-optic constants: application to β-BaB2O4 crystals

Abstract: We present the interferometric technique which allows to measure piezooptical and photoelastic characteristics of crystal materials of any symmetry. The offered two-fold interferometric method enables to determine all independent non-zero piezooptic and photoelastic constants by measuring pressure induced changes of optical path. As advantage to known acoustooptical techniques this method allows to measure both the absolute magnitude and sign of photoelastic constants. In general case the determination of 36 components of piezooptic tensor needs to carry out 57 measurements on 16 samples. The corresponding relationships are derived. As an example we apply here the interferometric technique to measure the piezooptic and photoelastic constants in trigonal β -BaB 2 O 4 crystals.

High-power transverse flow CW CO2 laser for material processing applications

Abstract: A transverse flow transversely excited (TFTE) CW CO2 with a maximum output power about 15 kW has been developed. This is excited by pulser sustained DC discharge applied between a pair of multi-pins anodes and a common tubular cathode. Though the laser power in convective cooled CO2 laser scales proportionally with the volumetric gas flow, it did not increase in this laser when the volumetric gas flow was increased by increasing the electrode separation keeping the flow velocity constant. The discharge voltage too remained almost unchanged with increase of the electrode separation. These observations are explained considering the electrical discharge being controlled by ionization instability. Laser materials processing applications often demand programming facilities for laser power modulation. A four-stage cascaded multilevel DC–DC converter-based high-frequency switch mode power supply has been developed to modulate the output power of the laser. Laser was operated up to 15 kW output power in four different modes viz. continuous wave mode, pulse periodic mode, single shot mode and processing velocity-dependent power mode with 1.2 kHz modulation bandwidth. We describe briefly the laser system, the SMPS, and the temporal behavior of laser beam.

Processing of concretes with a high power CO2 laser

Abstract: Laser material processing, being a non-contact process, minimizes many of the complexities involved in the decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. A high power laser beam incident on a concrete surface can produce spalling, glazing or vaporization, depending upon the laser power density and scan speed. This paper presents effect of various laser processing parameters on the efficiency of material removal by surface spalling and glazing. The size of laser beam at constant fluence or energy density had significantly different effect on the spalling process. In thick concrete block cutting the flow or removal of molten material limits the cutting depth. By employing repeated laser glazing followed by mechanical scrubbing process cutting of 150 mm thick concrete block was carried out. Gravitation force was utilized for molten materials to flow out while drilling holes on vertical concrete walls. The dependence of the incident laser beam angle on drilling time was experimentally studied.

Three-dimensional optical profilometry using a four-core optical fibre

Abstract: This paper describes the use of a four-core optical fibre for measurements of three-dimensional rigid-body shapes. A fringe pattern, which is generated by interference of four wavefronts emitted from the four-core optical fibre, is projected on an object's surface. The deformed fringe pattern containing information of the object's surface topography is captured by a digital CCD camera and is analysed using a two-dimensional Fourier transform profilometry. It is demonstrated for the first time that the use of such a four-core optical fibre increases the compactness and the stability of the fringe projection system.

Feedback control for 2D free curve laser forming

Abstract: Forming sheet metal by laser-induced thermal stress (laser forming) is considered to have a great potential for rapid prototyping and other flexible manufacturing. However, the previous researches have mainly focused on analyzing the phenomena of the forming process. In 2D free curve laser forming, a feedback control scheme for each single bending angle was suggested in this study by incorporating a statistical method and the effect of the remaining errors was discussed. Methods of compensating for the remaining errors were proposed and analyzed by computer simulations. Experiments verified the applicability of the proposed methods.

Thermally induced deformations measured by shearography

Abstract: In the present work, the thermo-mechanical behavior, temperature versus thermal deformation with respect to time, of different coating films were studied by a non-destructive technique (NDT) known as shearography. Organic coatings, i.e., Epoxy on metallic alloys, i.e., carbon steels, were investigated at a temperature range simulating the severe weather temperatures in Kuwait especially between the day-time and the night-time temperatures. The investigation focused on determining the in-plane displacement of the coatings, which amounts to the thermal deformation and stress with respect to temperature and time. Along with the experimental data, a mathematical relationship was derived describing the thermal deformation and stress of a coating film as a function of temperature. Furthermore, results of shearography indicate that the technique is a very useful NDT method not only for determining the thermo-mechanical behavior of different coatings but also can be used as a 2D microscope for monitoring the deformation of the coatings in real-time at a microscopic scale.

Projection ablation of glass-based single and arrayed microstructures using excimer laser

Abstract: Ablation of single and arrayed microstructures using an excimer laser is studied. The single feature microstructures are fabricated for evaluating the ablation mechanism, threshold fluence, and associated material removing (ablation) rate. The morphology changes during ablation are investigated with the focus on the formation of the ablation defects, debris or recast. The possibility of removing these defects is also evaluated and demonstrated. The present study concentrates on the borosilicate glass, although ablation of polyimide and silicon are performed and discussed for comparison. Polyimide and silicon are the most popular polymer or semiconductor material used in the electronics industry. The arrayed microstructures are ablated to demonstrate the fact that, by repetition of a simple-patterned mask associated with synchronized laser pulses and substrate movement, arrayed and more complex structures can be cost-effectively manufactured. The potential applications of these arrayed microstructures are discussed and illustrated. A low-cost replication technique that uses the arrayed microstructure presently machined as the forming mold for making electroforming nickel microneedles is specifically presented. Finally, the potential areas of using excimer laser in micromachining of glass-based structures for future research are also briefly covered.

Monolithic integration technology between microlens arrays and infrared charge coupled devices

Abstract: In this paper, we develop an integration technology between Si microlens and 256(H)×256(V) element PtSi Schottky-barrier infrared charge coupled device (IR-CCD) to improve the optical responsivity of CCD sensor. The refractive microlenses with the pixel size of approximately 28×28 μm 2 is directly fabricated on the backside of CCD substrate to focus the incident irradiation onto the active area. For the integration device the fill factor is improved by a factor of 2.1. As a result, the IR-CCD image sensors operating at 77 K indicate an approximate 0.06–0.4 increase in relative optical responsivity in the spectral range of from 1 to 5 μm . CCD imaging quality with microlens has been improved comparing to that without microlens to a great extent.

A novel high-peak power double AO Q-switches pulse Nd:YAG laser for drilling

Abstract: This paper reports on the characterization and analysis of a novel high power with double acousto-optical (AO) Q-switch pulse laser. It is shown that two AO Q-switches, in which acousto-fields are perpendicular to each other, switch-loss is nearly three times larger than one AO Q-switch, one time larger than the two AO Q-switches in which acousto-field are parallel. The laser pulse bursts, with 5– 50 kHz repetition rate of the burst, typically 200 ns duration, 400 kW the peak power, 5 mm mrad beam parameter product, are obtained. Using the laser for drilling, the perfect drilling results are given to a thinner recast layer.

Improving the sharpness of an image with non-uniform illumination

Abstract: We demonstrate a new method to sharpen a non-uniformly illuminated image by use of wavelet transformation employing Harr function. Both the fine characteristics and object edges in the image are well enhanced without degrading the contrast. This method provides some superiority compared to the conventional algorithms.

Preparation and optical constants of the nano-crystal and polymer composite Bi4Ti3O12/PMMA thin films

Abstract: Bismuth titanate, Bi4Ti3O12 (BTO), is a typical ferroelectric material with useful properties for optical memory, piezoelectric and electro-optic devices. Its nano-crystals were compounded by the chemical solution decomposition technique. Its structure and size were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and transmissive electron microscopy. The composite thin film of BTO nano-crystals and high transparency polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer was prepared by spin coating. The transmitted spectrum of BTO/PMMA composite thin film in 300– 1500 nm was measured. The film thickness d and the optical constants of the film, such as the refractive index n, the absorption coefficient α, and the extinction coefficient κ were obtained using the data from the transmitted spectrum.

Monte-Carlo analysis of centroid detected accuracy for wavefront sensor

Abstract: By utilizing Monte-Carlo simulation technology, the centroid algorithms have been compared in detail. The factors such as the detected window size, threshold and weighting power factor, which affect the detected accuracy of the wavefront sensor, have been studied and the optimal parameters for each algorithm have been found. The numerical results will be helpful for further improving the measurement accuracy of the wavefront sensor.

Experimental study of high-power pulse side-pumped Nd:YAG laser

Abstract: The paper reports on the characterization of a compact and simple side-pumped 0.538 J ×100 Hz pulse Nd:YAG laser. A side-pumping configuration with 100 laser diode bars is used in the laser head. We also experimentally studied the laser performance of the diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser head in the free running and Q-switched operation under different repetition rates.

Recognition of a light line pattern by Hu moments for 3-D reconstruction of a rotated object

Abstract: A simple technique of a light line projection for 3-D shape detection of rotated objects is presented. In this technique, an object is rotated around its symmetrical axis four times at an angle by using an electromechanical device and scanned by a light line. Four views of the object surface are extracted from each one of these rotations by processing a set of light line images. These views are connected using rotation angle and origin coordinates to obtain the complete 3-D shape. Angle and origin are calculated by recognition of a light line pattern. Light line pattern is recognized by Hu moments. In this manner, measurement errors on setup are avoided. It is an advantage over common methods, where these two parameters are measured directly on the setup to obtain the 3-D shape. Local profilometric method is based on the perturbation that the light line suffers when it is projected on the object surface. This perturbation is observed on an image plane due to the different direction between light line projector and viewer. These perturbations are measured by using Gaussian functions. In this technique the light line images are processed in very fast form. The technique and processing time are presented in detail. This technique is tested with objects, which have little information and its experimental results are also presented.

Neural estimator to determine alpha parameter in terms of quantum-well number

Abstract: The value of the α (Alpha) parameter, which is also called Linewidth enhancement factor, is particularly important in optical communication systems. This paper presents a new approach based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) to determine the α parameter for different number of quantum-wells (QWs). ANNs are trained in different structures with the use of five learning algorithms to obtain better performance and faster error convergence. The Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm, which has a quadratic speed of convergence, gives the best result among other learning algorithms used in the analysis. Both the training and the test results are in very good agreement with the experimental results reported elsewhere.