External Electric Field-Assisted Laser Percussion Drilling for Highly Reflective Metals

Abstract

In this study, an external electric field was employed during the laser percussion drilling on highly reflective materials. The laser-produced plasma was sputtered substantially, and the charged ions in the plasma plume were drawn by the electrodes. Different configurations of plate electrodes were proposed and investigated in this work to provide a simple, low-cost method that allows expelling the laser-induced plasma during the percussion drilling process. The electric field resulted from the potential that was applied across the two electrodes. This electrical perturbation produced a uniform electric field when the laser-generated plasma was created in the plane plate-charged capacitor. The electric field with different electrode configurations applied to the charged particles that are carrying the electrons was also simulated in this work. All processing work was performed in air under standard atmospheric conditions and in the absence of assisting process gas. The depth of the holes drilled when various types of electrode configurations were used was measured, and the results were used to evaluate the percussion drilling rate. Results show that vaporized debris is expelled by the applied electric field; hence, in optimal configuration the penetration depth can be increased by up to 91.1%.