New opportunities in material processing with a compact, efficient, 150W CO₂ laser

Advances in laser machine tools are often driven by advances in the design of the laser itself. By making significant improvements to an existing design of 100 Watt RF-excited CO₂ laser, we have successfully matched and displaced a much larger product with one that is smaller and more economical. These reductions in size and cost will enable likewise improvements in size, complexity and cost for next-generation laser processing tools. High conversion efficiency, high peak pulse power, and excellent spatial mode quality will help solve new applications in non-metal, thin metal and ceramic processing.