Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) technology has received considerable interest over the last several years due to its short, fiber-deliverable wavelength (1.315 microns), scalability to high powers (tens of kilowatts, cw), and potentially high beam quality. Unfortunately, materials processing demonstrations to date have been performed with relatively small COILs producing very poor quality beams (M2 > 100). This paper documents the cutting performance of a higher beam quality COIL. Cut depth and width on a variety of materials is documented as a function of various process parameters.
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