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Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Careful characterization of laser beams used in materials processing such as welding and drilling is necessary to obtain robust, reproducible processes and products. Recently, equipment and techniques have become available which make it possible to rapidly and conveniently characterize the size, shape, mode structure, beam quality (Mz), and intensity of a laser beam (incident power/unit area) as a function of distance along the beam path. This facilitates obtaining a desired focused spot size and also locating its position. However, for a given position along the beam axis, these devices typically measure where the beam intensity level has been reduced to I/ez of maximum intensity at that position to determine the beam size. While giving an intuitive indication of the beam shape since the maximum intensity of the beam varies greatly, the contour so determined is not an iso-contour of any parameter related to the beam intensity or power. In this work we shall discuss an alternative beam shape formulation where the same measured information is plotted as contour intervals of intensity.

Evaporation is a classical physics problem which, because of its significant importance for many engineering applications, has drawn considerable attention by previous researchers. Classical theoretical models [Ta. I. Frenkel, Kinetic Theory of Liquids, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1946] represent evaporation in a simplistic way as the escape of atoms with highest velocities from a potential well with the depth determined by the atomic binding energy. The processes taking place in the gas phase above the rapidly evaporating surface have also been studied in great detail [S.I.Anisimov and V. A. Khokhlov, Instabilities in Lasser-Matter Interaction, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1995]. The description of evaporation utilizing these models is known to adequately characterize drilling with high beam intensity, e.g., >10{sup 7} W/cm{sup 2}. However, the interaction regimes when beam intensity is relatively low, such as during welding or cutting, lack both theoretical and experimental consideration of the evaporation. It was shown recently that if the evaporation is treated in accordance with Anisimov et.al.'s approach, then predicted evaporation recoil should be a substantial factor influencing melt flow and related heat transfer during laser beam welding and cutting. To verify the applicability of this model for low beam intensity interaction, the authors compared the results of measurements and calculations of recoil pressure generated during laser beam irradiation of a target. The target material used was water ice at {minus}10 C. The displacement of a target supported in a nearly frictionless air bearing under irradiation by a defocused laser beam from a 14 kW CO{sub 2} laser was recorded and Newton's laws of motion used to derive the recoil pressure.