Soldering techniques for the assembly of high power solid-state lasers

Soldering techniques are of increasing interest for the manufacturing of laser systems. High thermal conductance required for effective and long-term-stable cooling of laser components and a low sensibility to environmental influences like temperature changes and humidity are the main reasons to join components by soldering. Compared to conventional mounting techniques, soldering demands highly complex process control. Detailed knowledge about the influence of mechanical stress caused by thermal expansion mismatch is necessary to properly choose not only the process strategy but also the dimensions of the components. This paper reports on the development of soldering techniques for the surface-mounted assembly of laser components such as lenses, mirrors, laser-crystals and nonlinear crystals used for the assembly of a miniaturized marking laser system "MicroSlab".