Ultrafast laser beam shaping for material processing at imaging plane by geometric masks using a spatial light modulator



Kuang, Zheng, Li, Jiangning, Edwardson, Stuart ORCID: 0000-0001-5239-4409, Perrie, Walter, Liu, Dun and Dearden, Geoff ORCID: 0000-0003-0648-7473
(2015) Ultrafast laser beam shaping for material processing at imaging plane by geometric masks using a spatial light modulator. Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 70. pp. 1-5.

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Abstract

We have demonstrated an original ultrafast laser beam shaping technique for material processing using a spatial light modulator (SLM). Complicated and time-consuming diffraction far-field phase hologram calculations based on Fourier transformations are avoided, while simple and direct geometric masks are used to shape the incident beam at diffraction near-field. Various beam intensity shapes, such as square, triangle, ring and star, are obtained and then reconstructed at the imaging plane of an f-theta lens. The size of the shaped beam is approximately 20 µm, which is comparable to the beam waist at the focal plane. A polished stainless steel sample is machined by the shaped beam at the imaging plane. The shape of the ablation footprint well matches the beam shape.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Ultrafast laser, Beam shaping, Material micro-processing, Geometric mask, Spatial light modulator
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 06 Jul 2016 08:44
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 07:34
DOI: 10.1016/j.optlaseng.2015.02.004
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3002110