| United States Patent | 5,780,806 |
| Ferguson, et. al. | Jul. 14, 1998 |
| Inventors: | Ferguson; Russell L. (Idaho Falls, ID); Edelson; Martin C. (Ames, IA); Pang; Ho-ming (Ames, IA). |
| Assignee: | Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company (Idaho Falls, ID). |
| Appl. No.: | 506,585 |
| Filed: | Jul. 25, 1995 |
| Intl. Cl. : | B23K 26/00, B23K 26/16 |
| Current U.S. Cl.: | 219/121.68; 134/1; 219/121.69 |
| Field of Search: | 219/121.84, 121.68, 121.69, 121.83, 121.76, 121.65, 121.66, 121.78, 121.8, 121.72; 134/1 |
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Translation of Japan Patent document 4-339,587, PTO 97-2624, Apr. 1997.
Decontamination Development Program, lecture given at Waste Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) Conference, Las Cruces, NM, Apr. 13-15, 1994, proceedings published Jul. 25, 1994.
Light Ablation for Decontamination, lecture given at The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society meeting.
A laser ablation system comprising a laser head providing a laser output; a flexible fiber optic cable optically coupled to the laser output and transmitting laser light; an output optics assembly including a nozzle through which laser light passes; an exhaust tube in communication with the nozzle; and a blower generating a vacuum on the exhaust tube. A method of decontaminating a surface comprising the following steps: providing an acousto-optic, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser light ablation system having a fiber optically coupled output optics assembly; and operating the laser light ablation system to produce an irradiance greater than 1*10(^7) W/cm(^2), and a pulse width between 80 and 170 ns.
The United States Government has rights in this invention disclosed under Contract Number DE-AC07-94ID13223 with Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company .