Laser light interaction with contamination on the surface to clean
It is important to note that the mechanisms of light-matter interaction are not the same for all laser cleaning applications. Effective cleaning may include a combination of ablation, evaporation, melting, and melt ejection by the creation of vapour pressure. Generally speaking, the efficacy of a cleaning process is dependent on a number of parameters. In the ideal situation, the laser light should be well absorbed in the layer to be cleaned, but below the relevant process thresholds for the substrate material. In this way, the process can be made to be self-limiting such that over-processing will not cause significant damage to the substrate. This can be achieved by optimising the laser wavelength or by adjusting beam parameters such as the pulse energy, pulse duration (peak power), and beam profile (energy and peak power density). Key performance indicators for laser cleaning often include surface quality, edge quality, and process speed.
Fiber lasers with high reliability, stability, and flexibility have become the best choice as a laser cleaning beam source.
Laser cleaning uses a focused laser beam to rapidly vaporize or strip the contaminants on a material’s surface. Compared with other traditional physical or chemical cleaning methods, laser cleaning is non-contact, with no consumables or pollution, high precision, and small residual damage. This process is an ideal choice for the new generation of industrial cleaning technology. Furthermore, fiber lasers with high reliability, stability, and flexibility have become the best choice as a laser cleaning beam source. Two types of fiber lasers, continuous-wave (CW) fiber lasers and pulsed fiber lasers, occupy the market for macromaterial processing and precise material processing. For emerging laser cleaning applications, there are questions about whether the CW fiber laser or pulsed fiber laser should be used.