Good Article on Laser Welding

[The Lightning Stalker]

Details on some of the laser requirements
for welding and parameters that affect the
outcome

Fundamentals of laser welding - EE Publishers

 

[Down with Umbrella]

excellent read. I like that this article addresses Peak shaping which I can see would be a very useful feature. My Lincoln invertec has a square wave pulse option which I use sometimes.
Any time you can reduce the HAZ you tend to have a better weld (in context, preheating is important but too much can compromise the base metal)

Also interesting in the article is the discussion of using the laser beam welding process to weld metals with a high luster like AL and CU. Very cool.
I don't yet use EBW or LBW but within the next two years I'm hoping to get into a facility does.