Laser reflecting ceramics

Paul Boughton

High performance alumina-based ceramic reflectors for solid-state lasers are suitable for a wide variety of industrial and healthcare applications, including cutting and welding or marking.

Morgan Advanced Materials’ proven Sintox AL material is a porous high purity alumina (99.7% Al2O3), boasts high strength, good thermal conductivity and excellent dimensional and electrical stability in the operating temperature range.

Longer lasting and featuring high reflectance over a wide wavelength range, Sintox AL provides an alternative to metal-coated reflectors. It exhibits high reflectance (97-99%) over an optimum reflectance range from 570-2000 nanometres (nm). Process control and repeatability allows production of material with controlled porosity – a necessity for high quality laser light generation.

Morgan offers three proprietary glaze options that protect the underlying porous ceramic from cooling fluids in operation and can be colored to restrict wavelength range.

A clear yellow glaze absorbs radiation at the Nd-YAG lasing wavelength of 1064 nanometers (nm), and further transitions near 940nm, 1120nm, 1320nm and 1440nm. A high-absorption samarium oxide glaze is formulated through controlled addition of dopant to create soptimum reflectance properties. The samarium oxide glaze matches yellow and clear glazes between 700-900nm for reflectance.

With the design capability to produce customer-specific solutions and standard products, Morgan offers one piece, two-piece and complex geometries. Components up to 250 millimetres (mm) long and with diameters up to 80mm are manufactured as standard.

Recent Issues