THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH REPETITIVE AND HIGH-POWER ND-YAG LASER BY USING A ZERO-CURRENT SWITCHING RESONANT CONVERTER

In materials processing, the power density control of a laser beam has been considered to be significant. In this study, a zero-current swit ching resonant converter as the power supply of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser was adopted to control the laser power density, which depends on flash lamp current pulsewidth and pulse repetition rate. It arrowed us to de sign and fabricate a high repetition rate and high power pursed Nd:YAG laser system. As a result of that, the current pulsewidth could be co ntrolled in the range 200-350 mu s (step 50 mu s), and the purse repet ition rate could be adjusted to 500-1150 pps (pulse per second). In ad dition, in the case of one laser head consisting of an Nd:YAG laser ro d and two flashlamps, the maximum laser output of 240 W was produced a t the condition of 350 mu s and 1150 pps, and that of about 480 W was generated at the same condition when two laser heads were arranged in cascade. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.