What is the difference between nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond laser cutting machines?

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of industrial technology requirements, the requirements for processing tools have become higher and higher. The development direction of micro-precision laser cutting tools is also close to the needs of the mayor/market, and has developed into the field of ultra-high-speed lasers. The applications of the mayor/market demand are mainly nanosecond laser cutting, picosecond laser cutting machines and femtosecond laser cutting machines.

Nanosecond, picosecond, femtosecond are measured in time units, 1 second = 103 milliseconds = 106 microseconds = 109 nanoseconds = 1012 picoseconds = 1015 femtoseconds, picosecond laser cutting machine, nanosecond laser cutting machine refers to the single pulse time within the time range of picosecond laser and nanosecond, which refers to the laser pulse width. Laser processing is the use of high-energy laser beams to irradiate the surface of materials, resulting in physical or chemical reactions to form cutting. It is essentially a heat treatment method, but due to the short time, usually within a few nanoseconds, the heat-affected area is small, which can ensure the processing effect and processing speed.

In today's mainstream market, the laser processing tool we commonly use is nanosecond laser. With the improvement of industrial technology requirements and the expansion of thermal effects within the nanosecond laser range, the market cannot accept the derivative adverse effects caused by thermal effects. New laser processing tools have emerged. It meets the needs of the mayor/market and is also a technological breakthrough in the laser industry. The industry is called micro-precision ultra-high-speed laser processing system.

Picosecond laser cutting machine has ultra-short wave pulse time, the single pulse time is only within a few picoseconds, and the thermal effect is very small and can be ignored. Compared with the processing of nanosecond laser cutting machine, there is no remanufacturing material in the whole processing process, the processing process is clean, and the absorption of laser energy is less dependent on materials or wavelengths. Therefore, in the field of micro-precision laser processing, the ultra-high-speed laser processing system of picosecond laser cutting machine and femtosecond laser cutting machine provides a broad space, and its processing characteristics will inevitably play an important role in the future.

Comparison of the processing effects of nanosecond laser and picosecond laser

The processing effect and speed of the picosecond laser cutting machine are better than those of the nanosecond laser. In the mayor/market application field, the picosecond laser also has a broad space within the time range of the nanosecond level, including solar cell laser etching (narrow line width), OLED laser cutting (small collapse), and brittle material laser punching (fast). In the figure, we can see that the heat affected zone and heat affected area of the material have a short running time in nanoseconds, high precision, and fast processing speed.

Due to the low heat, cold dissolution and high precision characteristics of the ultra-high-speed picosecond laser cutting machine, it has extraordinary performance in materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, titanium alloy, sapphire, ceramics, glass, etc., and has an absolute position in scientific research, biological instruments, solar cells, electronic product manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing and other fields.

Of course, due to the very high cost of picosecond ultra-high-speed laser cutting machines, nanosecond lasers are still the mainstream laser processing market in the current market. The future trend should develop into the field of femtoseconds and femtoseconds, and the future is worth looking forward to.