Femtosecond Welding - Ultrafast Laser Bonds Between Dissimilar Materials
Technical lecture
09 December 2025 19:00 - 20:00
This event has finished
Description
A New Manufacturing Process: Ultrafast Laser Bonds Between Dissimilar Materials: Femtosecond Welding of Metal and Glass
Joining glass to metal is a perennial headache for makers of precision optics. Adhesives, frits, solders and catalytic bonds all earn their keep, but each extracts a price—be it the complexity of surface preparation or the compromises introduced by interlayers.
A nimbler alternative is taking shape. Ultrashort-pulse laser welding promises direct fusion between stubbornly dissimilar materials. Over the past decade Heriot-Watt University has led much of the work, probing everything from surface conditioning and pulse parameters to lifetime performance. The team has even built an in-house polariscope to measure birefringence (the way internal stress makes glass slow light differently in different directions) at the weld.
The lecture will set out the research and engineering behind this breakthrough, and sketch where it leads: cleaner, stronger metal–glass joints for optical assemblies and other demanding industrial applications.
Speaker(s)
Dr Richard Carter (Heriot-Watt) specialises in high-power laser applications and ultrafast laser processing. His group has led a decade of work on glass-metal bonding — from surface preparation and laser parameters to lifetime tests.
Address
The Royal Scots Club
30 Abercromby Place
EDINBURGH
EH3 6QE
United Kingdom