Novel high peak current pulsed diode laser sources for direct material processing

Diode laser systems are well established for applications which demand high continuous wave (cw) power. These applications are material processing like cutting and welding of metals as well as polymers where diode laser systems are less expensive and more compact than solid state lasers. Even though the optical output power and the beam quality of diode lasers are increasing steadily, the use of these sources is generally limited to cw applications. For processes during which ablating of material is demanded, however, conventional diode lasers are inferior compared to pulsed solid state lasers as diode lasers suffer from the absence of optical intracavity q-switching. Some examples of these applications are coating removal and marking. To overcome this drawback, we have developed several diode laser systems that use high peak-current drivers and thereby allow to operate the diode lasers at currents up to 500 A. The pulse source was tested with fiber coupled single emitters, conventional diode lasers and customized AR-coated diode laser bars. With the new diode laser driver, a peak output power of 250 W can be achieved with pulse durations of approx. 100 ns. Polarization coupling of two bars increases the power by a factor of two. Thereby an output power of 500 W can be demonstrated. These systems reach an intensity of 27 MW/cm(2) per diode laser bar which is sufficient for ablating processes. We will demonstrate the design of the prototype system as well as results of marking and coating removal experiments with the system.