The most used lasers are infrared, green and UV systems at the moment. A new type, blue laser started to attract some attention in 2017. Today, we want to introduce a leading technology from Laserline GmbH, a blue diode laser. What is a blue diode laser? How about the application potential? In the following text, Markus Ruetering, Asia sales manager of Laserline, will give us answers.

目前最常用到的激光是紅外、綠光和紫外激光系統(tǒng)。在2017年，一種新型藍(lán)色激光器逐漸開始吸引了人們注意力。今天，我們想要介紹一種來自Laserline公司的領(lǐng)先技術(shù)——藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器。藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器是什么？其應(yīng)用潛力如何？在下面的文章內(nèi)容中，Laserline的亞洲銷售經(jīng)理Markus Ruetering將給我們做出解答。

Markus Ruetering, Asia sales manager of Laserline

Laserline的亞洲銷售經(jīng)理Markus Ruetering

Laser Manufacture News: Laserline is a professional leading diode lasers supplier, so what products should we focus on in this year?

《激光制造商情》：Laserline是一家專業(yè)領(lǐng)先的半導(dǎo)體激光器供應(yīng)商，我們今年應(yīng)該關(guān)注的產(chǎn)品有哪些？

Markus: As a leading company in diode lasers, we keep developing our updated developments, so we are now manufacturing our diode lasers of its sixth generation already. We’ve already introduced our sixth generation of diode lasers to the world, which are suitable for several applications, with laser power levels in the range from 1 kW up to 25 kW. We also develop our own processing optics, where we can coverapplications like brazing, hardening, heat treatment, cladding, and plastic welding as well as newer applications like additive manufacturing or tape laying of CFRP’s. Our highlight of this year is a diode laser having a blue radiation of 450 nm. And we give it a high expectation.

Markus：作為一家領(lǐng)先的半導(dǎo)體激光企業(yè)，我們持續(xù)發(fā)展我們最新的發(fā)展成果，這就是為什么我們已經(jīng)在生產(chǎn)我們的第六代半導(dǎo)體激光器了。我們已經(jīng)推出了我們的第六代半導(dǎo)體激光器，它適合用于幾種應(yīng)用，功率在1kW到25kW之間。我們還開發(fā)了自己的光學(xué)加工鏡頭，我們可以覆蓋釬焊、淬火、熱處理、熔覆和塑料焊接等應(yīng)用，以及增材制造或CFRP的層鋪設(shè)等新應(yīng)用。我們今年的亮點(diǎn)是一款有450nm藍(lán)光的半導(dǎo)體激光器，我們對(duì)它抱有很高的期望。

Laser Manufacture News: What are the advantages of the blue lasers?

《激光制造商情》：藍(lán)光激光器有什么優(yōu)點(diǎn)？

Markus: The blue lasers with a wavelength of 450 nm have a very high absorption into materials which have a high reflection for classical wavelengths emitted by industrial lasers, so called non-ferrous metals. Specifically for copper, gold as well as silver materials.It has slightly better absorption into aluminum, but our focus with blue lasers is mainly on copper materials, as well as gold and silver. So when we look into the application that is considered from companies in terms of batteries, electronics, and the so called e-mobility – electro mobility. We need to do a lot of copper application in terms of welding, and it’s found and reported in a lot of investigations that lasers in the infrared section, infrared wavelength, cannot weld copper materials with the reason of process window or sometimes not at all. Welding copper with a 1 μm laser in addition to creating a lot of spatter, so if you have done an application, for example, in the battery industry, you have to clean the part after the welding. If you do this welds with a blue laser, the absorption is so high that you need much less power. We can do a lot of applications already with 500W using blue lasers while we need several kilowatt for infrared laser. We have a heat conduction welding rather than a keyhole welding, and the heat conduction welding helps us to have spatter-free welding of the samples, and with this, have next to the lower power, higher efficiency, and also the advantage of having a clean production.

Markus：那些對(duì)常見波長(zhǎng)的工業(yè)激光反射率高的材料，對(duì)波長(zhǎng)為450nm的藍(lán)色激光的吸收率非常高，也就是所謂的“有色金屬”，尤其是金、銀和銅。鋁材料對(duì)藍(lán)色激光的吸收率還要略微高一些，但是我們藍(lán)色激光的重點(diǎn)還是放在金、銀、銅上。因此，當(dāng)我們研究從電池、電子和電動(dòng)汽車方面的公司考慮的應(yīng)用時(shí)，我們需要在焊接方面進(jìn)行大量的銅應(yīng)用，并且在許多研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)并報(bào)告了紅外波段中的激光器、紅外波長(zhǎng)由于工藝窗口不能焊接銅材料，或者有時(shí)根本能不焊接。使用1μm激光焊接銅會(huì)產(chǎn)生大量飛濺，因此，例如在電池行業(yè)中，您必須在完成焊接應(yīng)用后清潔零件。但如果你用藍(lán)色激光進(jìn)行焊接，吸收率很高，因此你需要的功率就更少。我們可以使用藍(lán)色激光器進(jìn)行500W的許多應(yīng)用，而相同的應(yīng)用我們則需要幾千瓦的紅外激光器功率。我們有導(dǎo)熱焊接而不是深熔焊，熱傳導(dǎo)焊有助于減少焊接飛濺，并且與此相比，具有更低的功率、并保證生產(chǎn)清潔高效。

Laser Manufacture News: In 2017, laser with new wavelengths attracted the attention in the market, and Laserline’s counterpart is blue diode laser, so what’s the difference between them?

《激光制造商情》：2017年時(shí)，具有新波長(zhǎng)的激光器在市場(chǎng)上吸引了許多關(guān)注，而Laserline相應(yīng)的產(chǎn)品就是藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器，那么它們之間有什么不同點(diǎn)呢？

Markus: The general advantage of diode lasers compared to either fiber lasers or disc lasers is that we have a direct conversion from electricity to light, so we don’t have the additional converting crystals or fibers like disc and fibers, and the system in the overall efficiency of the system is higher. When we look at the application of, like say, copper, people are actually using, as well, green lasers into this field, but to create a green laser, you have to first create an infrared light, and then you have to transfer infrared into green, and this is a high loss of efficiency. It increases the cost a lot, and investigations of the application have shown that a green laser is not capable of the same applications like blue, so the blue lasers that we are offering has no converter, or any frequency doubling crystal, etc, inside the system. We are making blue light straight from the diode, which is the highest efficiency possible in such a setup, and the blue light is having such high absorption as I mentioned before that in overall process when welding copper can easily gain an advantage of a factor of 20 and higher compared to existing technologies.

Markus: 相比光纖激光器或碟片激光器，通常半導(dǎo)體激光器的優(yōu)勢(shì)在于其直接的電光轉(zhuǎn)換，因此半導(dǎo)體激光器不像光纖或碟片激光器需要額外的光光轉(zhuǎn)換過程，而且總體上系統(tǒng)效率更高。在一些應(yīng)用中，比如說銅，人們也會(huì)用綠激光來進(jìn)行銅加工，但是要產(chǎn)生綠激光的前提是先生成紅外激光，然后才能把紅外光轉(zhuǎn)化為綠激光，并且這樣會(huì)降低能量轉(zhuǎn)換效率。這樣不但成本會(huì)提升，而且一些應(yīng)用研究顯示了綠激光并不能進(jìn)行跟藍(lán)激光相同的應(yīng)用。我們提供的藍(lán)激光器系統(tǒng)里沒有轉(zhuǎn)換器，或倍頻水晶之類的東西。我們直接用二極管生成藍(lán)色激光，在這樣的激光裝置中可能達(dá)到的能量效率已經(jīng)是最高，而且藍(lán)色激光有如此高的吸收率，正如我前面提到的，當(dāng)焊接銅時(shí)能輕易地得到20倍或更高的吸收率，這是現(xiàn)有的其他技術(shù)都做不到的優(yōu)勢(shì)。

Laser Manufacture News: Could you please introduce the project achievement of your blue laser? Is Laserline in a leading position in terms of blue lasers now?

《激光制造商情》：你能否介紹一下你們藍(lán)色激光的項(xiàng)目成果？目前Laserline在藍(lán)色激光領(lǐng)域是處于領(lǐng)先地位嗎？

Markus: Laserline is two years through a three-year German government-funded project developing high-power blue diode lasers. The goal is to build a kilowatt blue diode laser. This was developed within the EFFILAS support measure of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) in close collaboration with OSRAM and other project partners, which has allowed for more effective welding processes of nonferrous metals, especially copper.Yes we have the highest power today, but we could not have done it on our own, as I mentioned it’s a funded project from the German government. The power we actually have in our laboratory is 700W, and that is, as far as we know, a world record in terms of available power in blue. We have done a lot of trails in our application lab already using 100/500/600W today with very good results. We have not released the laser as a product, because we first want to run through the project with our partners. Afterwards, I’m pretty sure that the blue diode laser will be the better technology compared to any frequency doubling or tripling that we have seen from other systems. There is another solution which is considered for blue diode laser, and I don’t think blue fiber laser or any other system has real chance to break into this market.

Markus: Laserline參加一個(gè)為期三年的德國(guó)政府資助的項(xiàng)目已經(jīng)兩年了，致力于研發(fā)高功率藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器，目標(biāo)是制造出千瓦級(jí)藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器。這是在OSRAM和其他項(xiàng)目合作伙伴的密切合作下，在聯(lián)邦教育研究部的EFFILAS支持措施中指定的，這使得有色金屬，特別是銅的焊接工藝更加高效。沒錯(cuò)，我們擁有目前最高的功率，但這不是憑我們一己之力完成的，正如我前面提到的，這是一個(gè)德國(guó)政府資助的項(xiàng)目。事實(shí)上我們擁有的實(shí)驗(yàn)室功率是700W，這是據(jù)我們所知目前世界上最高功率的藍(lán)色激光。我們已經(jīng)用100/500/600W的藍(lán)色激光在我們的應(yīng)用實(shí)驗(yàn)室中的許多試驗(yàn)得到了很好的結(jié)果。我們還沒有把這個(gè)激光器作為產(chǎn)品發(fā)布出來，因?yàn)槲覀兪紫认胍覀兊暮献骰锇檫M(jìn)行一些項(xiàng)目。最后，我非常確信藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器是一種比其他系統(tǒng)中看到的任何倍頻或三倍頻更出色的技術(shù)。還有另一種解決方案被考慮用于藍(lán)光半導(dǎo)體激光器，我認(rèn)為藍(lán)光光纖激光器或者任何其他系統(tǒng)沒有真正的機(jī)會(huì)進(jìn)入這個(gè)市場(chǎng)。