High power selective laser melting of crack sensitive nickel-base alloy CM247LC, including dimensional analysis and modelling

Compared to reference parameters in the low power and scan velocity range, which lead to dense and crack-free CM247LC LPBF samples due to in-situ crack healing, high power, high scan velocities and increased laser beam diameters are investigated, to decrease the production time further. By keeping the maximum laser intensity from the reference and the laser power to scan velocity ratio constant, the intensity approach provides an initial estimation for the laser spot size regarding the measured Archimedean density and crack density in the high power and high scan velocity range. The investigated cracks are identified as re-melting cracks. Solidification or hot cracks are not observed, since the crack healing effect for those kinds of cracks still occurs. Furthermore, a melt pool depth range is discovered, where not only solidification cracks can be avoided, but also re-melting cracks, which are resulting from higher laser power inputs. This theory can be proven by further laser spot size optimization, where the melt pool depth comes closer to the mentioned range. The Archimedean density and crack density results, in case of the 600 W power parameter with 2400 mm/s scan velocity and a beam diameter of 164 µm, are close to the one obtained from the reference with 200 W, a scan velocity of 800 mm/s and a laser spot of 90 µm. With the intensity approach and laser beam diameter optimization, the production time can be reduced by 300%. Based on dimensional analysis, a model, which combines the samples density with the crack density through the melt pool depth, is presented. Six main and two additional process and laser parameters are taken into relation. The result from the model and the measured values from experiments are in good agreement. Additionally, the influence of the doubled layer thickness and an increased hatch distance by 50% with varying scan velocities on the Archimedean density and crack density is analysed.

Effects of Laser Spot Size on the Mechanical Properties of AISI 420 Stainless Steel Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of laser spot size on the mechanical properties of AISI 420 stainless steel, fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM), process. Tensile specimens were built directly via the SLM process, using various laser spot diameters, namely 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mm. The corresponding volumetric energy density (EV) is 80, 40, 26.7, and 20 J/mm3, respectively. Experimental results indicates that laser spot size is an important process parameter and has significant effects on the surface roughness, hardness, density, tensile strength, and microstructure of the SLM AISI 420 builds. A large laser spot with low volumetric energy density results in balling, un-overlapped defects, a large re-heated zone, and a large sub-grain size. As a result, SLM specimens fabricated by the largest laser spot diameter of 0.4 mm exhibit the roughest surface, lowest densification, and lowest ultimate tensile strength. To ensure complete melting of the powder and melt pool stability, EV of 80 J/mm3 proves to be a suitable laser energy density value for the given SLM processing and material system.

Long lifetime of bialkali photocathodes operating in high gradient superconducting radio frequency gun

High brightness, high charge electron beams are critical for a number of advanced accelerator applications. The initial emittance of the electron beam, which is determined by the mean transverse energy (MTE) and laser spot size, is one of the most important parameters determining the beam quality. The bialkali photocathodes illuminated by a visible laser have the advantages of high quantum efficiency (QE) and low MTE. Furthermore, Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) guns can operate in the continuous wave (CW) mode at high accelerating gradients, e.g. with significant reduction of the laser spot size at the photocathode. Combining the bialkali photocathode with the SRF gun enables generation of high charge, high brightness, and possibly high average current electron beams. However, integrating the high QE semiconductor photocathode into the SRF guns has been challenging. In this article, we report on the development of bialkali photocathodes for successful operation in the SRF gun with months-long lifetime while delivering CW beams with nano-coulomb charge per bunch. This achievement opens a new era for high charge, high brightness CW electron beams.

Laser-induced Forward Transfer Hydrogel Printing: A Defined Route for Highly Controlled Process

Laser-induced forward transfer is a versatile, non-contact, and nozzle-free printing technique which has demonstrated high potential for different printing applications with high resolution. In this article, three most widely used hydrogels in bioprinting (2% hyaluronic acid sodium salt, 1% methylcellulose, and 1% sodium alginate) were used to study laser printing processes. For this purpose, the authors applied a laser system based on a pulsed infrared laser (1064 nm wavelength, 8 ns pulse duration, 1 – 5 J/cm2 laser fluence, and 30 μm laser spot size). A high-speed shooting showed that the increase in fluence caused a sequential change in the transfer regimes: No transfer regime, optimal jetting regime with a single droplet transfer, high speed regime, turbulent regime, and plume regime. It was demonstrated that in the optimal jetting regime, which led to printing with single droplets, the size and volume of droplets transferred to the acceptor slide increased almost linearly with the increase of laser fluence. It was also shown that the maintenance of a stable temperature (±2°C) allowed for neglecting the temperature-induced viscosity change of hydrogels. It was determined that under room conditions (20°C, humidity 50%), the hydrogel layer, due to drying processes, decreased with a speed of about 8 μm/min, which could lead to a temporal variation of the transfer process parameters. The authors developed a practical algorithm that allowed quick configuration of the laser printing process on an applied experimental setup. The configuration is provided by the change of the easily tunable parameters: Laser pulse energy, laser spot size, the distance between the donor ribbon and acceptor plate, as well as the thickness of the hydrogel layer on the donor ribbon slide.

Rapid, continuous radiocarbon analysis of carbonate archives using laser ablation

<p>While high-precision radiocarbon (<sup>14</sup>C) measurements of carbonaceous samples using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) have become routine, achieving a continuous radiocarbon record for carbonate archives (e.g. speleothems, corals) still requires labor-intensive and time-consuming sample preparation. By feeding laser ablation (LA) generated CO<sub>2</sub>/CO online into a gas source AMS, however, these archives can be sampled continuously and with minimal preparation efforts.</p><p>The LA-AMS setup installed in 2013 at ETH Zurich [1] has recently been improved in order to achieve higher signal intensities and consequently higher measurement precision as well as simpler instrumental maintenance. By redesigning the sample cell and reducing the optical path length of the laser, the fluence on the sample could be increased from previously 1-2 J cm<sup>-1</sup> to now 8-23 J cm<sup>-1</sup>, leading to more efficient generation of gaseous carbon from CaCO<sub>3</sub>. The laser spot size was reduced from 110 μm x 680 μm to 75 μm x 140 μm, improving the overall spatial resolution of the setup. The background level of the method has been determined to have a F<sup>14</sup>C of 0.009 ± 0.002 and reaches a precision of less than 1% for modern samples.</p><p>To fully exploit the advantages of this unique technique, a LA-AMS specific data analysis software to disentangle [2] the quasi-continuous data stream is being developed. Features implemented include correlation of data with sampling location and plotting of all relevant measurement parameters as a function of sampling location (F<sup>14</sup>C, </p>