High power lasers of either the gas or solid state type can be used to generate a focal spot with a diameter of about a tenth of a millimetre and a power density of up to 100 Mio W/cm2. With these intensities all materials can be heated up rapidly, leading to fast melting, violent evaporation or even plasma formation. So laser beams can be utilized for various processing tasks, such as transformation hardening, cutting and ablation or welding and cladding or even rapid prototyping. With these processes, important advantages are achieved compared to conventional tools such as high processing speed due to the high concentration of energy and high quality of the processed workpiece without deformations due to the small overall heat input to the workpiece that corresponds to the small spot diameter. All these advantages finally result in strongly reduced production costs, which is the main reason for a world-wide substitution of conventional processes and other beam tools by laser technology.This monograph offers a great insight into the operation principles of high power laser sources, the phenomena of interaction of laser beams and materials and the mechanisms of the various production processes with lasers ? thus enabling production engineers and others to make optimum use of the benefits of laser technology and to understand the technical properties and the physical limitations of this most recent technology (especially in comparison to conventional tools and other beam tools), and providing a sufficient basis for the understanding and use of future developments in this area.

High power lasers of either the gas or solid state type can be used to generate a focal spot with a diameter of about a tenth of a millimetre and a power density of up to 100 Mio W/cm2. With these intensities all materials can be heated up rapidly, leading to fast melting, violent evaporation or even plasma formation. So laser beams can be utilized for various processing tasks, such as transformation hardening, cutting and ablation or welding and cladding or even rapid prototyping. With these processes, important advantages are achieved compared to conventional tools such as high processing speed due to the high concentration of energy and high quality of the processed workpiece without deformations due to the small overall heat input to the workpiece that corresponds to the small spot diameter. All these advantages finally result in strongly reduced production costs, which is the main reason for a world-wide substitution of conventional processes and other beam tools by laser technology.This monograph offers a great insight into the operation principles of high power laser sources, the phenomena of interaction of laser beams and materials and the mechanisms of the various production processes with lasers — thus enabling production engineers and others to make optimum use of the benefits of laser technology and to understand the technical properties and the physical limitations of this most recent technology (especially in comparison to conventional tools and other beam tools), and providing a sufficient basis for the understanding and use of future developments in this area.

The Laser world consists basically of two areas, which are necessary and in many cases also sufficient for effective innovation: The right laser for the right application. For the individual application that means the determination of optimized process parameters in terms of laser power, peak power/ intensity, focus geometry and dimension, pulse length, pulse repetition rate and wavelength to name only the six most important ones. Once these parameters are identified, the corresponding Laser has to be selected on the basis of commercial availability. Obviously there is no such thing than "One Laser for all". The situation is rather comparable with electrical power, were depending on the demand of the application in terms of voltage, current and time corresponding power supplies need to be tailored, however, with the difference that in the case of the Laser the variety of parameters is even higher, thus the technology is more complex but on the other hand much more flexible in terms optimizing the source to the application. As a consequence it is suggested to generate two volumes on Lasers and Applications named "Tailored Light".

The State of the Art in High-Power Laser Technology Filled with full-color images, High-Power Laser Handbook offers comprehensive details on the latest advances in high-power laser development and applications. Performance parameters for each major class of lasers are described. The book covers high-power gas, chemical, and free-electron lasers and then discusses semiconductor diode lasers, along with the associated technologies of packaging, reliability, and beam shaping and delivery. Current research and development in solid-state lasers is described as well as scaling approaches for high CW powers, high pulse energies, and high peak powers. This authoritative work also addresses the emergence of fiber lasers and concludes by reviewing various methods for beam combining. Coverage Includes: Carbon dioxide lasers Excimer lasers Chemical lasers High-power free-electron lasers Semiconductor laser diodes High-power diode laser arrays Introduction to high-power solid-state lasers Zig-zag slab lasers ThinZag high-power laser development Thin disk lasers Heat capacity lasers Ultrafast solid-state lasers Ultrafast lasers in the thin disk geometry The National Ignition Facility laser Optical fiber lasers Pulsed fiber lasers High-power ultrafast fiber laser systems High-power fiber lasers for industry and defense Beam combining

The use of lasers in material processing has become a useful method for transforming industrial materials into finished products. The benefits of laser material processing are vast, including increased precision, high processing speed, and dustless cutting and drilling. Advanced Manufacturing Techniques Using Laser Material Processing explores the latest methodologies for using lasers in materials manufacturing and production, the benefits of using lasers in industrial settings, as well as future outlooks for this technology. This innovative publication is an essential reference source for professionals, researchers, and graduate-level students studying manufacturing technologies and industrial engineering.

Advances in High-Power Fiber and Diode Laser Engineering provides an overview of recent research trends in fiber and diode lasers and laser systems engineering. In recent years, many new fiber designs and fiber laser system strategies have emerged, targeting the mitigation of different problems which occur when standard optical fibers are used for making high-power lasers. Simultaneously, a lot of attention has been put to increasing the brightness and the output power of laser diodes. Both of these major laser development directions continue to advance at a rapid pace with the sole purpose of achieving higher power while having excellent beam quality.