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Originally Posted by wasyoungonce
Does that make any sense? Anyone here knowledgeable on atomic models? Ionisation energy of elements?
All very intriguing  ! |
I think not. IR laser cuts aluminium also, but it needs to have higher power output, to cope with high thermal conductivity of aluminium. And it is pure thermal effect, no need for intricacies of quantum mechanics here, apart from absorbing the energy of the beam... Things like that (destruction of chemical bonds due to strong EM fields produced by laser pulse) are happening at very high power and short pulses, lasers like that are being under development these days. I have read somewhere that they achieved ultra-short pulses, duration of couple of femto seconds, and peak powers achieved were >MW or higher.
Laser steel cutting with relatively low powers are possible by the help of violent oxidation that releases a lot of additional heat.
BTW, aluminium is also very hard to weld for the same reason, apart from oxidation at the surface (so there is a need for neutral atmosphere or anything that prevents oxygen to come in contact with aluminium surface)