Deep melting of metals by specially profiled laser pulses

The problem of deep laser melting of the metals and alloys is theoretically and experimentally studied. It is shown that the process of laser melting consists of two stages: the formation of a melt buffer layer, and its penetration under the action of the saturated vapor pressure. There has been investigated an optimal regime of pulsed laser welding without melt species ejection as a regime when the affecting pulse is close in its form to the step-like pulse consisting of two parts. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics