Laser optics have proven to be very important and very useful as it is widely used in various aspects of life ranging from medicine, Medicine, science, industry, agriculture, entertainment, informatics, military, and defense. Industrial lasers are laser optics that are used in industries like laser material processing, laser cutting, welding, optical metrology with laser interferometers, laser scanners, optical sampling on semiconductor chips, fiber-optic sensors, and manufacturing. This type of laser’s performance specifications often does not approach the limits of currently available technology. On the other hand, there are often additional requirements that are specific for industrial applications like laser reliability which is essential for amortizing the high cost of laser systems over a large number of operations. Industrial lasers optics application can not be overemphasized as they are used in cutting of metals Surface, fabrics, mark tracking codes for industrial traceability, weld metals with high precision, clean metal surfaces, change the surface roughness, and measure part dimensions. For individual applications of laser, the choice of the laser to use and the application will be determined by the power levels, colors, and beam sizes, but they all rely on the same principles to give different results. The principle that these lasers work on are generally employed and optimized using more elaborate techniques to increase their power, precision, and robustness, but the principles remain the same. Just as optical windows are fabricated from different substrate industrial laser optics have similar procedures.
Properties Of Industrial Lasers
Directionality
When a laser source emits a light ray, its light travels in a single direction.
Highly Intense or Brightness
One major characteristic of Laser light is high intensity.
Monochromatic
When a laser emission is monochromatic in it means that the light has a single color structure or a single wavelength, unlike the light emitted from ordinary light sources which have different energies, frequencies, wavelengths, and colors. Due to its monochromatic nature, laser light has a narrow range of frequencies or wavelengths. This can be due to the stimulated characteristics of laser light with a bandwidth of 1000 Å. In the glass optical lenses industry, Alpine research optics have stood out with good quality.
Coherence
Coherence is the amplitude of the laser that correlates with the phase of the spectrum at any one point with another point is called. That means if two or more waves of the same frequency are in the same phase or have constant phase difference then these waves are said to be coherent. The nature of laser light coherence can either be spatial coherence or temporal coherence.
Major Components Of Industrial Laser
An Energy Source
The first component of a laser is the energy source or the pump source or the pump. This part of an industrial laser provides energy that is used in the laser system or for the specific application of choice. These pump sources can be in the form of electrical discharges, flashlamps, arc lamps, light from another laser, even explosive devices, or even chemical reactions and this depends on the gain medium, and this also determines how the energy is transmitted to the medium. A helium-neon (HeNe) laser uses an electrical discharge in the helium-neon gas mixture, excimer lasers use a chemical reaction, while an Nd: YAG laser uses either light focused from a xenon flash lamp or diode lasers.
Laser Medium
When working with a laser system, the laser medium is the major determining factor of the wavelength of operation, and other properties, of the laser and in turn will affect the application of the laser. The spectra of the laser Medium are wide or linear, but for a laser medium with a wide spectrum, the laser frequency can easily be tuned while for a linear laser medium, the frequency goes in a straight line.
Optical Mirrors
Two or more Optical mirrors or Optical resonators are used in the system to attain optimum output. Two or more coated mirrors are placed along with the laser medium and this gives feedback of the light rays. One of the mirrors will have an active reflectivity and the latter will have a partial reflectivity.
