激光器的光束质量、功率、光的波长以及偏振状态是影响激光加工的几个主要参数。本文论述了材料加工对激光光束质量的要求以及光束质量的评定标准，分析了光束质量、直径与波长对光的传输、聚焦与加工性能的影响，归纳了不同功率密度时激光能量的吸收机制以及波长的影响，讨论了激光的偏振及其应用。

A hybrid Nd:YAG laser beam welding technique has been investigated in welding of aluminum alloy. Connecting the filler wire with one pole of a DC power supply and the workpiece with the other, a closed electric circuit is built. By this means, the wire is resistively preheated, so that less energy from the laser beam is dissipated in melting the filler metal. On the other hand, the current flowing in the weld pool generates a magnetic field and electromagnetic forces which affect the fluid flow of the weld pool and then the welding process. It is found that the weld depth increases and the weld seam becomes slender when a certain current is supplied. To clarify which effect, the thermal effect or the electromagnetic effect, dominates, welding with pure hot wire was carried out. The experimental results demonstrate that the pure hot wire addition has no obvious affect on the welding efficiency and the weld cross section, but worsens the process instability. Thus we can conclude that the influences of the current do not result from the resistive heat from the wire, but the electromagnetic effects. This new approach provides a possibility to increase the processing efficiency and flexibility, improve the process stability and weld quality, and also shape the seam cross section.

介绍了一种利用电流的磁流体动力学效应强化铝合金CO2激光焊接的方法及初步试验结果。在激光焊接过程中，通过一个布置于熔池前方的附加电极向熔池提供电流，该电流在熔池中产生磁场和电磁力，致使熔池运动状态及相应的热交换条件发生改变，从而提高激光能量的有效利用率和加工效率、控制焊缝成型。利用该方法，焊缝深度最高增加约32%，面积增加约20%，而焊缝宽度减小约28%

Laser beam welding of aluminum alloys is expected to offer both the technical and economical advantages. In most cases welding wire addition is necessary from the viewpoints to suppress hot cracks, improve mechanical properties of the weld as well as to reduce demands on the edge preparation, fit-up tolerance, and beam alignment. In practice, the filler wire could be added to the weld pool either in the leading or trailing direction. In this experimental work reported, the influence of the wire addition direction on the weld efficiency and process stability was investigated by using a 5kW CO2 laser to weld aluminum alloy 6009 with a plate thickness of 3mm. Beam-on-plate welds were made either in the autogeneous mode or with filler wire AlSi12. Illuminated by a double frequency Nd: YAG laser, the weld pool dynamics and the wire melting process were observed applying a high speed camera. The experimental results demonstrate that welding with filler wire in the trailing direction is more efficient and stable than in the leading direction. The high speed camera photographs show that the filler wire is mainly melted through the weld pool heating and the plasma heating in the former case and through the direct laser irradiation and the plasma heating in the later case. The weld pool is of vibration when welding in the autogeneous mode or with filler wire in the leading direction. However, the weld pool is much calmer when the wire is added in the trailing direction to the weld pool.