Laser for melting silica 1

[JohnC5440]

I am interested in building a &quot;tool&quot; using a laser to melt (actually soften a small area of) silica glass. Today I heat this glass with an electric arc to accoplish my needs. The downside of this is that I have limited control over this arc. The silica I work with is small in size (about .02 inches wide). Controlled heating is critical for consistency.<br>
What laser would work best and where can I get one?<br>
Thanks<br>
John C.

 

[vik]

John<br>
A small Carbon Dioxide (CO2) laser perhaps 20 to 50 Watts would melt silica materials very effectively. The laser beam can be 'focussed' using simple lenses to &lt;100 micrometers so that should fit with your size requirements. These size lasers start at $5,000 so to try the idea it may be best to approach a University elec-eng or physics department that has these devices and can advise on their (safe) use. See the IOP website <A HREF="

http://www.iop.org"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.iop.org</A>

for listings of which UK departments to approach; TIPTOP or OSA for international sites. If youv'e got money and want some of the system built up for you I can recommend a laser systems manufacturer/systems integrator GSI Lumonics Inc. <br>
Vik<br>
email: <A HREF="mailto:eat-more-toast@ieee.org">eat-more-toast@ieee.org</A><br>
<br>

 

&quot;simple lenses&quot; means salt (humidity problems) or ZnSE (toxic). But other than that, I guess the CO2 is your only valid choice for this kind of job; probably you arelooking for a pulsed CO2, laser, with &quot;light&quot; pulses in the microsecond range, and repetitions of maybe hundred or couple of hundred pulses/ second.

You can:

- control the actual &quot;length&quot; (time) of the light pulse
- the repetition frequency
- directly the focalization of the laser beam

to achieve a broad spectrum of thermal effects