Dear friends, engineers, technologists, managers, current and potential laser users, and last but not least students and PhD students,
Last year LASER celebrated its 50th anniversary. This could not but be reflected in an increased number of articles on the subject in professional and popular science periodicals. In addition, the Czech Republic hosted the LASER 50 conference organized by the Institute of Instrumentation Technology of the CAS, which brought together for the first time Czech engineers and researchers from various fields of study who are involved in the phenomenon called LASER, both in a broader context: history, principles, unique applications, as well as with regard to recent specific current applications, global developments and trends.
Articles on the subject have also appeared and are appearing in various periodicals, highlighting new types of laser systems, applications and general developments in the field. This information is not always accurate and objective, even the terminology itself is often confusing ( e.g. disc laser versus disk laser) , or mentions only a narrow area of development without understanding the actual nature and principles, with all due respect to the authors of the published articles. Quite often they are just literal translations of company presentations of various manufacturers.
Therefore, Technik magazine together with LAO (OptiXs, s.r.o. took over the activities of LAO in 2016) offers you a comprehensive series in the field of laser systems and applications, which will follow the line from the general to the specific.
Brief content of the series
In the first issue we start with theory - the basic principle of lasers and their division.
In the following parts we will then look in more detail at the main types of industrial lasers, discuss their principles and mention the advantages and disadvantages for different industrial applications.
Furthermore, laser cutting, , marking, hardening, coating, etc. technologies will be described in detail. We will illuminate the principles of the technologies themselves. This includes the applicability of different types of lasers for specific applications.
We will also mention in detail the possibilities of laser optical systems, i.e. how to guide the laser beam from the laser source to the workpiece itself, for different types of industrial lasers.
We will also touch upon the problem of metrology applications/systems using laser for measurement of various physical quantities.
In the penultimate article of this series, we will look at all the background regarding laser safety and the relevant standards.
In the last part, we will inform you about unique laser applications using special types of lasers, so-called UF(Ultra Fast) lasers with very short pulse lengths (fs and ps).