CEA to launch laser center

17 Jun 2002

France's first center for transferring nanosecond laser technology into industry is set to open early in 2002.

Courtesy of Opto & Laser Europe (OLE) magazine

Nd:YAG laser

The nanosecond laser platform for industrial applications, known as PLANI, will address markets such as micromachining and surface cleaning in many industrial fields.

The center, based at the French Atomic Energy Authority (CEA) site at Saclay, originated from an industrial collaboration that was set up for the development of a cleaning process. This proved successful, enabling the PLANI team to win funding from national and regional agencies to develop new products and processes.

PLANI houses a total of six Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers covering a broad band of emission wavelengths. The pulse duration of the lasers ranges from 10 to 200 ns with repetition rates of 5-50 kHz.

Head of the center Phillipe Cormont said: "With pulses of a few nanoseconds, the lasers deliver the same kind of power as conventional ones, but the energy is more concentrated in time. This results in minimal thermal transfer to the material, for example, making it possible to realize micromachining with high precision."

Studies have identified application areas in the automotive, aeronautics and microelectronics industries. These markets have developed significantly in countries such as the US and Germany and the PLANI centre hopes to promote these areas in France.