Aspects described herein relate to additive manufacturing systems and related methods. In some embodiments, an additive manufacturing system includes a laser array position detector to determine a position and/or orientation of laser energy pixels in a laser array. The laser array position detector may include an aperture and an optical sensor positioned within the aperture to detect laser energy from a laser energy pixel when the laser array is scanned across the aperture.

An apparatus includes a beam splitter and a plurality of mirrors. The beam splitter is positioned to receive a laser beam from a source and split the received laser beam to a first plurality of split laser beams and a second plurality of split laser beams. The plurality of mirrors is configured to direct the first plurality of split laser beams and further configured to direct the second plurality of split laser beams. The first plurality of split laser beams is directed by the plurality of mirrors is configured to cut a glass substrate. The second plurality of split laser beams is directed by the plurality of mirrors is configured to shape the glass substrate.

A processing device forms, in an object to be processed, a modified spot constituting a modified region. The processing device includes a first irradiation unit configured to irradiate the object with first light to temporarily increase absorptivity in a partial region of the object as compared with the absorptivity before irradiation of the first light, and a second irradiation unit configured to irradiate the partial region with second light in an absorptivity increase period in which the absorptivity of the partial region is temporarily increased.

A welding method includes: arranging a workpiece containing copper in a region to be irradiated with laser light; and irradiating the workpiece with the laser light to melt and weld an irradiated portion of the workpiece. Further, the laser light is formed of a main beam and a plurality of sub beams, and a ratio of power of the main beam to total power of the plurality of sub beams is 72:1 to 3:7.

The invention concerns a method and an apparatus for processing an object (1) by means of interfering laser beams. It is the task of the invention to provide for an improved compensation of the aberrations accumulated over the beam path in such processes/apparatuses, since these are a substantial disturbing factor with respect to the precision in structuring the material. Furthermore, the influence of the period course, i.e. the spatial modulation of the period of the modification produced in the material of the object (1), shall be improved. The invention proposes that laser radiation is generated as a collimated laser beam (3). The intensity distribution and/or the phase progression is influenced over the cross-section of the laser beam (3) to correct aberrations. The laser beam (3) is divided into two partial beams (6, 7). Finally, the partial beams (6, 7) are deflected and focused so that the partial beams (6, 7) overlap in a processing zone (10) in the material of the object (1). The deflection and focusing of the partial beam (6, 7) is preferably performed by means of adaptive optics (11), which modify the phase and/or intensity profile over the cross section of at least one partial beam (6, 7) and thus adapt the intensity and/or period profile of a structure produced in the object (1) by the interfering partial beams (6, 7). Furthermore, the deflection and focusing of the partial beams (6, 7) preferably includes an aberration correction.

An optical device may include a polarization splitter to split a unidirectional rotary optical beam into a first rotary optical beam having a first polarization state and a second rotary optical beam having a second polarization state. The unidirectional rotary optical beam and the second rotary optical beam may have optical power with a first direction of spatial rotation. The optical device may include a reflective element to reverse a parity of the first rotary optical beam in association with causing optical power of the first rotary optical beam to have a second direction of spatial rotation. The optical device may include a polarization combiner to, after reversal of the parity of the first rotary optical beam, combine the first rotary optical beam and the second rotary optical beam to create a bi-directional rotary optical beam having the first polarization state and the second polarization state.

A laser annealing apparatus 100 includes a laser irradiation device 10 to emit a plurality of laser beams LB toward an irradiation region R1 of a stage 20, the laser irradiation device including: a laser device to emit a laser beam LA; and a convergence unit that includes a microlens array 34 having a plurality of microlenses 34A arranged in m rows and n columns and a mask 32 having a plurality of apertures 32A, the convergence unit 30 receiving the laser beam from the laser device to form respective convergence points of the plurality of laser beams within the irradiation region R1. The plurality of laser beams are p rows and q columns of laser beams formed by p rows and q columns of microlenses (p<m or q<n) among the m rows and n columns of microlenses. The laser irradiation device further includes a disturbance mechanism to alter the relative positioning between the convergence unit 30 and the irradiation region R1 so that, from among the m rows and n columns of microlenses, at least two different sets of p rows and q columns of microlenses are selectable.

A laser annealing device includes a laser generator, a beam splitter, a /2 phase difference member, a first reflective member, and a second reflective member. The laser generator emits a laser beam. The beam splitter splits the laser beam into a first reflective light and a transmissive light. The /2 phase difference member changes a polarization component of the transmissive light. The first reflective member reflects the transmissive light having the changed polarization component. The second reflective member reflects the transmissive light having the changed polarization component in a way such that the transmissive light having the changed polarization component which is reflected from the first reflective member is incident to the beam splitter.

A welding method includes: forming a workpiece by stacking plated sheet members having a plating layer formed on a surface of a base material; disposing the workpiece in an area to be irradiated with laser light; irradiating a surface of the workpiece with a plurality of beams by dispersing positions such that centers of the beams do not overlap with each other within a prescribed area on the surface; while continuing the irradiation, relatively moving the beams and the workpiece and sweeping the beams on the workpiece so as to melt an irradiated part of the workpiece for performing welding; and setting a distance between the beams to be emitted such that weld pools formed in the workpiece by irradiation of each of the beams overlap with each other.

A laser welding head with movable mirrors may be used to perform welding operations, for example, with wobble patterns and/or seam finding/tracking and following. The movable mirrors provide a wobbling movement of one or more beams within a relatively small field of view, for example, defined by a scan angle of 1-2. The movable mirrors may be galvanometer mirrors that are controllable by a control system including a galvo controller. The laser welding head may also include a diffractive optical element to shape the beam or beams being moved. The control system may also be used to control the fiber laser, for example, in response to the position of the beams relative to the workpiece and/or a sensed condition in the welding head such as a thermal condition proximate one of the mirrors.