Laser structuring is rapidly developing manufacturing technique for broad spectrum of industrial branches, e.g. aerospace, power engineering, tool- and mould making, and automotive. It enables to prepare work pieces and products with very fine micro structures achieving a far better degree of details than conventional structuring techniques like etching or eroding. However, the state of art in laser structuring shows a crucial deficit. Used systems contain no metrology setup to detect the shape geometry (depth and length) and contour accuracy during the process. Therefore, an innovative in-line metrology technique based on low coherence interferometry for laser structuring systems has been investigated and described in the paper. In this contribution we present our results in the research of wideband and highpower light sources for the proposed low-coherence interferometric measurement system. The system can be incorporated into a structuring workplace equipped with a Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser at 1064 nm for material processing. In the paper we focus on two wideband sources for such a measurement system. The first source is based on a superluminescent diode and the second one is based on an amplified spontaneous emission in a double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber. An example of results measured with the proposed in-line metrology system is presented.

Date Published: 18 December 2012
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8697, 18th Czech-Polish-Slovak Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 869718 (18 December 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.2007388

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8697:
18th Czech-Polish-Slovak Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics
Jan Peřina Jr.; Libor Nozka; Miroslav Hrabovský; Dagmar Senderáková; Waclaw Urbańczyk; Ondrej Haderka; Libor Nožka, Editor(s)