A method for forming a conductive track on a surface (21) of a substrate (11) that includes providing the substrate (11), wherein the substrate (11) comprises deposited material (23) along a path on a surface (21) of the substrate (11). Generating a laser beam having an optical axis and an energy distribution within a cross-sectional area of the laser beam incident on the surface (21). The energy distribution of the laser beam is non-circularly symmetric about the optical axis at the surface (21). The method further includes directing the laser beam to move along the path to irradiate the deposited material (23) to provide a conductive track along the path. A selected orientation of the energy distribution within the cross-sectional area is aligned with the direction of movement of the laser beam.

Provided is a process for producing an aluminum member, including irradiating a surface of an aluminum raw material member including, as a component, aluminum or aluminum alloy and unavoidable impurities with a top-hat laser beam at an intensity of from 110 MW/cm2 to 320 MW/cm2, wherein the aluminum member includes, in sequence, a base layer containing, as a component, aluminum or aluminum alloy and having unavoidable impurities; an oxide layer containing an aluminum oxide; and a porous layer containing a porous aggregate of aluminum metal particles.

Aspects described herein relate to additive manufacturing systems and related methods. An additive manufacturing system may include two or more laser energy sources and associated optical fibers. An optics assembly may be constructed and arranged to form a rectangular laser energy pixel associated with each laser energy source. Each pixel may have a substantially uniform power density, and the pixels may be arranged to form a linear array of laser energy pixels on a build surface with no spacing between the pixels. Exposure of a portion of a layer of material on the build surface to the linear array of laser energy pixels may melt the portion of the layer.

A thermal processing apparatus and method in which a first laser source, for example, a CO.sub.2 emitting at 10.6 m is focused onto a silicon wafer as a line beam and a second laser source, for example, a GaAs laser bar emitting at 808 nm is focused onto the wafer as a larger beam surrounding the line beam. The two beams are scanned in synchronism in the direction of the narrow dimension of the line beam to create a narrow heating pulse from the line beam when activated by the larger beam. The energy of GaAs radiation is greater than the silicon bandgap energy and creates free carriers. The energy of the CO.sub.2 radiation is less than the silicon bandgap energy so silicon is otherwise transparent to it, but the long wavelength radiation is absorbed by the free carriers.

The present invention relates to a method for laser-based machining of a planar, crystalline substrate in order to separate the substrate into a plurality of parts, in which the laser beam of a laser is directed, for machining the substrate, onto the latter, in which, with an optical arrangement positioned in the beam path of the laser, a laser beam focal surface which is expanded, viewed both along the beam direction and viewed in precisely a first direction perpendicular to the beam direction, but is not expanded in a second direction which is both perpendicular to the first direction and to the beam direction, is formed from the laser beam radiated onto said arrangement on the beam output side of the optical arrangement, the substrate being positioned relative to the laser beam focal surface such that the laser beam focal surface in the interior of the substrate, along an expanded surface portion of the substrate material, produces an induced absorption by means of which crack formations in the substrate material induced along this expanded surface portion are effected.

An apparatus includes a beam source, beam forming optics, a first focusing lens having a focal length, a second focusing lens having a focal length similar to the focal length of the first lens, and a lens translator configured to move the second lens transversely relative to the beam forming optics and to the first lens, and thereby move the elongated focus transversely. In some embodiments, the beam forming optics are positioned between the beam source and the first focusing lens, the first focusing lens is positioned between the beam forming optics and the second focusing lens, and the beam forming optics, the first focusing lens, and the second focusing lens are arranged to receive a beam of laser radiation from the beam source and to form the beam into an elongated focus.

A method includes aligning a plurality i of juxtaposable laser lines in order to form a continuous overall laser line suitable for heat treating a planar substrate capable of being made to move rectilinearly in a first direction, each laser line being formed by a module that emits a laser line onto the surface S of the planar substrate, on which surface a heat treatment is capable of being carried out.

A welding or cladding apparatus in which one or more energy beam emitters are used to generate a wide beam spot transverse to a welding or cladding path, and one or more wide feeders feed wire to the spot to create a wide welding or cladding puddle.

A line beam irradiation apparatus (1000) includes a work stage (200), a line beam source (100) for irradiating a work (300) placed on the work stage (200) with a line beam; and a transporting device (250) for moving at least one of the work stage (200) and the line beam source (100) such that an irradiation position of the line beam on the work moves in a direction transverse to the line beam. The line beam source includes a plurality of semiconductor laser devices and a support for supporting the plurality of semiconductor laser devices. The plurality of semiconductor laser devices are arranged along a same line extending in a fast axis direction, and the laser light emitted from emission regions of respective ones of the semiconductor laser devices diverge parallel to the same line to form the line beam.

A laser irradiation method of irradiating, with a pulse laser beam, an irradiation object in which an impurity source film is formed on a semiconductor substrate includes: reading fluence per pulse of the pulse laser beam with which a rectangular irradiation region set on the irradiation object is irradiated and the number of irradiation pulses the irradiation region is irradiated, the fluence being equal to or larger than a threshold at or beyond which ablation potentially occurs to the impurity source film when the irradiation object is irradiated with pulses of the pulse laser beam in the irradiation pulse number and smaller than a threshold at or beyond which damage potentially occurs to the surface of the semiconductor substrate; calculating a scanning speed Vdx; and moving the irradiation object at the scanning speed Vdx relative to the irradiation region while irradiating the irradiation region with the pulse laser beam at the repetition frequency f.