What is the difference between a DC glass laser and an RF metal laser?

The first CO2 lasers invented in the early 1960s were DC glass lasers. Since the 1960s, there has been no progress in DC laser technology, mainly because the development of laser technology has turned to radio frequency and all-metal laser designs.

The DC glass laser consists of a long and fragile blown glass container, which contains a laser gas mixture. The laser optics is directly connected to the glass to seal the laser mixture and form a laser resonator. The high-voltage direct current discharge ionizes the gas inside the glass container to generate a laser beam.

Due to the poor heat transfer of glass and the low efficiency of high-voltage DC discharge, DC lasers require special water-cooled equipment to achieve continuous operation. The correct way to cool a DC glass laser is to use a chiller. The cooler is essentially a combination of refrigeration equipment and a pump. The pump recirculates the water around the glass laser to keep the laser at a constant temperature. Since the DC glass laser uses a very high DC voltage, if water comes into contact with high-voltage electronic equipment, it will be very dangerous, even fatal, especially when used in combination with cooling water.

Over time, the use of glass as a gas tank and the DC discharge between the electrodes will contaminate the electrode mixture. These by-products are the byproducts of electrode corrosion and exhaustion of the gas mixture. The contamination of the gas mixture and the consumption of helium escaping through the glass wall and the sealing layer reduce the efficiency of the laser and severely shorten the service life of the laser.

The characteristic of the DC glass laser is that the modulation speed is very low. Due to the limitation of continuously turning on and off the high-voltage DC power supply, it cannot be quickly modulated. This greatly limits the speed of laser processing and reduces throughput, especially in imaging applications that require high-quality laser pulses.

In addition, glass lasers may be damaged by thermal shock due to daily handling or interruption of water cooling. If no cooling flow is provided to the laser, the glass container will break, causing the laser to fail to work properly. This makes the service life of DC glass lasers very limited, usually measured in months of work.

DC glass lasers are precision equipment. When integrated into a laser material processing system, they require additional cooling equipment for operation. Compared with other lasers, the output quality is lower and the laser processing speed is very limited. , And the service life is very short.

The radio frequency metal laser has a closed metal chamber containing a laser gas mixture. The precisely controlled radio frequency energy is used to generate ionized gas plasma for the laser to generate the laser beam. The design of the RF metal laser is compact, durable, and integrated with air cooling. RF metal lasers were originally developed for high-demand military applications. Today, the development of RF metal lasers continues.

Radio frequency metal lasers are the lasers of choice that are widely used in many industries today. These lasers can operate in almost any environment without high pressure and water cooling.

The radio frequency metal laser has low cost, its design is durable, provides the highest performance with the highest laser beam quality, provides unlimited service life, and can ensure the safety of the operator.

So, when considering purchasing a laser system, you should ask the laser system supplier which type of laser is used in the system it provides.