Advantages And Disadvantages of YAG Lasers

A YAG laser is a solid-state laser, where YAG stands for yttrium aluminum garnet crystal (Y3Al5012). It is a laser substrate with excellent comprehensive performance and is widely used in various lasers.

In YAG lasers, neodymium (Nd)-doped ions are used as activation ions, which can produce 1.064µm of ground-state fluorescence and 0.532µm of green laser light by frequency doubling. These lasers are widely used for their high efficiency, stability and good beam quality.

The output power of YAG lasers can be adjusted as needed, from a few watts to kilowatts. This flexibility allows YAG lasers to be adapted to different application scenarios. For example, they can be used in material processing, medical, military, communications and scientific research.

Among them, neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet lasers (Nd:YAG lasers) are by far the most widely used solid-state lasers. Since the neodymium concentration of Nd-doped Nd can reach more than 1.3x1020/cm3, it makes it possible to provide a relatively high laser power per unit volume of working matter.

Overall, the YAG laser is a solid-state laser with excellent performance and a wide range of applications.

The YAG laser has many advantages. First of all, it has high coupling efficiency with metals and good processing performance. This means that it can more effectively convert electrical energy into laser energy, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of laser processing. Secondly, YAG lasers can easily transmit a laser beam to multiple stations or remote distance stations, which facilitates flexible laser processing. In addition, YAG lasers have both pulsed and continuous operation modes, which can meet different processing needs. Its pulsed output can be Q-modulated and mode-locked to obtain short pulses and ultra-short pulses, thus making its processing range more extensive.

However, YAG lasers also have some disadvantages. Firstly, its photoelectric conversion efficiency is low and the cost of using it is high. Secondly, there is an internal temperature gradient in the YAG laser bar during operation, which can cause thermal stress and thermal lens effect, limiting the further improvement of the average power and beam quality of the YAG laser. In addition, the maintenance of YAG lasers is troublesome and expensive.