Beam shaping for ultrafast materials processing

The remarkable temporal properties of ultra-short pulsed lasers in\ncombination with novel beam shaping concepts enable the development of\ncompletely new material processing strategies. We demonstrate the benefit of\nemploying focus distributions being tailored in all three spatial dimensions.\nAs example advanced Bessel-like beam profiles, 3D-beam splitting concepts and\nflat-top focus distributions are used to achieve high-quality and efficient\nresults for cutting, welding and drilling applications. Spatial and temporal in\nsitu diagnostics is employed to analyze light-matter interaction and, in\ncombination with flexible digital-holographic beam shaping techniques, to find\nthe optimal beam shape for the respective laser application.\n