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 Post subject: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:09 pm 
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Question: Is diamond the only gem that can be inscribed with a laser? Or can all other gems be so inscribed? I have a nebulous idea that diamond, as burnable carbon, is the only gem that will be inscibed with laser. Am I wrong? Thanks.


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 1:45 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:08 pm 
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Ok. There goes that theory. What I needed to know. Thanks Barb.


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:09 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:08 pm 
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I have seen a varity of colored gems from John Dwyer that are inscribed, so somebody is doing other than diamond and ruby.

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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 8:47 pm 
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mowgli2001 wrote:
Question: Is diamond the only gem that can be inscribed with a laser? Or can all other gems be so inscribed? I have a nebulous idea that diamond, as burnable carbon, is the only gem that will be inscibed with laser. Am I wrong? Thanks.


Laser etching doesn't depend on burning, so it doesn't have to be an oxygen-combustible material. At Bausch & Lomb, years ago, we used lasers to drill holes in lots of stuff. I don't know what mechanisms may be involved, but probably vaporization is a large part of it.

<edit> Here's an interesting article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_drilling


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:04 am 
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Anything will 'burn' if given sufficient motivation: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/ar ... _this_time

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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 10:30 am 
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Quote:

Laser etching doesn't depend on burning, so it doesn't have to be an oxygen-combustible material. At Bausch & Lomb, years ago, we used lasers to drill holes in lots of stuff. I don't know what mechanisms may be involved, but probably vaporization is a large part of it.


Yes. It's vaporization. I worked at a plant where we had a 10 kW laser that we used to engrave the final product.


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:36 pm 
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"laser ablation"


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:09 pm 
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Yes, laser ablation is the correct term. Note that liquid -> gas is evaporation, so vaporizing is not correct. Now solid -> gas is sublimation, which is closer to what is happening. But really the laser is changing the material from solid -> plasma (ionized gas, a fourth state of matter). So the proper term is ablation.

The ionized plasma can be used to identify the material's chemical content... examples include LIBS and LA-ICP-MS.


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 12:37 am 
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Brian wrote:
Yes, laser ablation is the correct term. Note that liquid -> gas is evaporation, so vaporizing is not correct.


Beg to differ. http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-vaporization-and-evaporation/


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 Post subject: Re: laser inscription on non-carbon gems
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:32 pm 
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Laser ablation is the process of removing material from a solid (or occasionally liquid) surface by irradiating it with a laser beam. At low laser flux, the material is heated by the absorbed laser energy and evaporates or sublimates. At high laser flux, the material is typically converted to a plasma. Usually, laser ablation refers to removing material with a pulsed laser, but it is possible to ablate material with a continuous wave laser beam if the laser intensity is high enough. (wikipedia)

I should mention that because usually you do not want to damage nearby material, usually low flux not used.


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