Joining Dissimilar Materials with Pulsed Nanosecond Fiber Lasers

Industrial use of nanosecond lasers for applications such as marking, engraving, cutting, and even micromachining is well known – however, the use of these sources for welding and joining is relatively new. Most applications of high-peak-power, short-pulsed lasers tend to be related to material removal, so their use for joining is perhaps counterintuitive. However, the versatility afforded by master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA)-based nanosecond fiber sources give unparalleled flexibility in terms of control of the output characteristics. These lasers can be used, for example, with high-peak-power nanosecond pulsed output with tunable pulse duration and high frequency-modulated quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) modes, as well as operated as a more conventional continuous-wave (CW) laser.