A mechanical chopper Q-switched CO_2 pulse laser with high peak power, short pulse duration, high pulse repetition rate and moderate average power is developed. Using this laser, a multi-pass cutting process with high cutting speed is proposed for cutting hard and brittle materials such as engineering ceramics. Crack-free and fine cut is obtained in cutting Si_3N_4 ceramics. Moreover, the formation and elimination of the cracks are qualitatively analyzed in the paper.
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