Welding of transparent polymers using femtosecond laser

Based on nonlinear absorption, we report on laser welding of cycloolefin copolymers without any additional absorption layer employing infrared femtosecond laser. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of ultrashort laser welding of this material class, revealing a remarkable high processing speed of 20 mm/s in a single pass mode. Using a 1028 nm laser having a pulse duration of 220 fs at a repetition rate of 571 kHz leads to a welding seam width between 38 and 137 μm, depending on the applied laser average power. The welded joint is characterized by a maximum shear strength of 40 MPa. The experimental results are compared to those reported for femtosecond laser welding of PMMA and to those published for using a Thulium fiber laser.