An article written by FTMC laser scientists has been selected as the lead research paper for November in Advanced Engineering Materials magazine, and its illustration has graced the cover of the publication.
The article "Efficient ablation, further GHz burst polishing, and surface texturing by ultrafast laser" was written by Dr. Mindaugas Gedvilas, Dr. Andrius Žemaitis and Dr. Paulius Gečys; they are working in the FTMC Department of Laser Technologies, Laser Microfabrication Laboratory.
The German Wiley-VCH publishing house, active in academic and professional publishing, is owned by the US publisher John Wiley & Sons, widely known as WILEY. Founded in 1921, Wiley-VCH focuses on a wide range of fields including science, technology, medicine and research. It is known as a publishing house with a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, books, reference works and databases. Advanced Engineering Materials, part of the prestigious Advanced portfolio of journals, focuses on the latest breakthroughs in engineering materials.
(The cover of Advanced Engineering Materials shows a Fresnel lens mould for LED diffusers, created using advanced laser milling technology. Illustration by Dr. M. Gedvilas)
Corresponding author and cover illustrator Dr. Mindaugas Gedvilas says that this work has demonstrated the fast and high quality three-dimensional cavity milling (precision cutting) in metal.
"In order to increase the performance of the high-power laser, optimization of the size of the laser beam and the number of light pulses in the burst was used, resulting in an ablation (removal of the material using laser radiation) rate of 13 mm3/min. Complex shaped cavities were produced by laser milling the metal in the layer.
The formation of surface structures on stainless steel due to the effect of laser radiation was also demonstrated. A low roughness of the laser-machined surface was achieved by polishing with GHz pulse frequency bursts. It has been shown that stainless steel molds for light-emitting diode (LED) diffusers (which are one of the secondary optics of LEDs) can be produced using a modern femtosecond laser source operating with different temporal patterns of laser pulses to achieve the desired surface finish," says the researcher, who adds that the results of this study will contribute to the successful integration of lasers in micro-mold manufacturing companies.
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