Femtosecond lasers have a role to play in the improvement of electrodes manufacturing for current and future generation of batteries, to increase batteries safety, lifetime and reduce wetting and charging time. The design of suitable structuring patterns for the required high processing speeds is a current development topic, the laser ablation parameters are always key parameters. Our study is using fs lasers up to 300W mean power, that can be coupled to a SLM (Spatial Light Modulator) to divide the incident beam in up to 50 beams. The electrode production speed is decisive to be economically credible. Both electrode cutting and electrode structuring results will be presented and discussed. Because of the huge ablation efficiency difference between the active material and the metallic substrate, electrode cutting time is dominated by the metallic substrate cutting for which a significant benefit of GHz bursts is evidenced.

Increasing the available energy and power of femtosecond lasers has consistently enabled new applications in micro-processing. This article explores the use of beam shaping with high-energy industrial lasers, addressing the challenges that arise when scaling energy levels for robust industrial implementation.

For the first time, a passive beam stabilization system based on Multi-Plane Light Conversion technology has been demonstrated at 400 µJ in the infrared. Passive stabilization is crucial for ensuring a reliable process, as it maintains stable beam shaping under all conditions without requiring realignment after installation. This stabilization is combined with high-quality square top-hat beam shaping, achieving sharp transition zones of 15 µm for a 60 µm top-hat in the processing plane and a beam uniformity of 0.07.

The article will discuss process improvements enabled by beam shaping, with a particular focus on enhancements in LIPSS generation compared to conventional processing methods.

With the production speed being a major obstacle in the economic production of PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane – Fuel Cell), introducing laser based drying of the coated catalyst layers could bring drying times from minutes down to just a few seconds. Laser based drying is also a more energy efficient alternative to oven drying and has a much smaller footprint.

In this paper we present the effects of the laser irradiation on the catalyst layer, demonstrating the degree of drying and the microstructure of the laser based dried catalyst layers at different drying temperatures and interaction times. For this purpose, a 980 nm diode laser with a temperature closed control loop is used to dry screen printed catalyst layers in a semi-continuous process.

The increasing need for energy storage devices demands efficient battery production technologies. One key process is drying anode and cathode slurries, usually done via convection-based ovens, which are space and energy consuming. A more efficient method is laser-based drying, which can process water-based slurries in a continuous roll-2-roll process.

A laser drying module developed by the authors offers rapid drying at web speeds up to 5 m/min and > 50 % reduced drying times. The study examines the interaction between laser radiation and slurry components, with a focus on preventing damage to the anodes. Processing parameters, including drying temperature, web speed, and film thickness, are adjusted to examine their impact on the anode. Since high evaporation rates may cause binder migration, the adhesion of the anode to the current collector foil is measured. The findings suggest that rapid drying with laser radiation can be successfully implemented under the right conditions.

High-power industrial femtosecond lasers require spatial beam shaping to efficiently distribute laser intensity for surface patterning. Although spatial light modulators (SLMs) offer this flexibility, their limitations (resolution, aberration) can affect the experimental intensity compared to the desired distribution (e.g., loss of multispot array homogeneity) and reduce overall efficiency due to energy loss in the stray 0th order. Automatic feedback strategies have been proposed, enabling dynamic correction of SLM modulation based on real-time laser intensity observation, potentially compensating for non-homogeneities.

By implementing this method numerically and experimentally, we evaluate its performance in overcoming SLM limitations. Laser intensity distribution analysis reveals the constraints on the achievable number of parallel spots, their homogeneity, and energy efficiency. Advanced surface patterning is achieved using this method. The results highlight both the potential and the limitations of automatic phase mask optimization in addressing SLM shortcomings for robust surface structuring with ultrafast lasers."