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Advantages of Low-M2 Laser Processing

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Advantages of Low-M2 Laser Processing

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With the variety of performance parameters used to characterize today’s lasers systems, a sometimes overlooked characteristic is the M2, or “beam quality”, factor. However, for a majority of laser processes, a higher quality, lower-M2 beam offers finer-feature machining, improved process robustness, and overall superior process results. In the context of laser materials processing, a low M2 is commonly associated with the ability to focus the beam to a tighter spot and hence generate finer features. While this is true, this is not the only significant advantage to be had. In addition to allowing for small spot sizes, a low M2 results in an increased depth of focus when the beam is focused to a particular spot size. This is important because, regardless of the M2 of the laser beam, the optics of a system will be chosen to create the focus spot size best-suited to generate the targeted feature size (the width of a thin film removal scribe, for example in solar cell processing).

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