X-ray emission during ultrafast laser grooving
摘要
Ultrashort pulse lasers offer the possibility to process materials with minimal heat input and high precision. However, the X-ray emission at high laser peak intensities represents an undesirable side effect. A laser system (1030 nm wavelength, 40 W maximum average laser power, 925 fs pulse duration, 100 μJ maximum pulse energy, 400 kHz pulse repetition frequency) was used to analyze the X-ray skin dose rates for applied peak intensities between 9.2 × 1012 W/cm2 and 1.3 × 1014 W/cm2 for mild steel, stainless steel and tungsten during groove processing. The lowest laser peak intensity at which X-ray emission could be measured was 9.2 × 1012 W/cm2 for processing of stainless steel. The X-ray emission showed a characteristic evolution in dependence on the number of overscans at the same line positions. For low peak intensities, a measurable X-ray emission only begins after a few passes. The number of scans to reach the maximum dose rate increases with lower laser peak intensity. Analysis of the evolving surface topography by white light interference microscopy in connection with ray-tracing simulations led to the interpretation that the increase in X-ray emission is due to the local intensity redistribution by multiple reflection within the laser-generated grooves which is promoted by a particular choice of the linear laser polarization.