“…Materials processing can include, without being limited to, surface modification [1], cutting [2], welding [3], drilling [4] and peening [5]. Lasers are highly versatile, with different technologies being capable of emitting light at different wavelengths (including ultra-violet, visible and infrared [6,7]) as well as emitting light as either a constant beam or in pulses ranging from milliseconds to attoseconds [8,9]. For the purpose of rapid surface processing, the CO 2 laser offers two primary advantages; firstly it is an efficient laser source that is capable of operating as a continuous wave (cw) at high power, and secondly, CO 2 lasers emit light at a wavelength of approximately 10.6 μm, which is in the long-wavelength infra-red (LWIR) region.…”