Development of a 53-W 343-nm UV laser for next generation material processing

Drilling of small diameter holes (< 0.2 mm) in thick (>2 mm) industrial materials requires high peak power lasers of single-mode beam quality and at a wavelength that is absorbed by the material. The number of holes drilled per second or the processing throughput increases monotonically with the laser average power. In this paper, we will present the results of a rotary disk laser, which is a completely new type of pulsed solid state laser system that produces the ideal combination of high peak power, high average power and single-mode beam quality at 343 nm, 515 nm and 1030 nm for precision hole drilling application in a wide variety of industrial materials. We have produced 53 W of average power at 343 nm that makes the rotary disk laser the highest power UV laser commercially available to date for material processing. We will also present our preliminary results of drilling of 60 micrometer diameter holes in 1/8” thick stainless steel.