Abstract: A thermal processing apparatus and method in which a first laser source, for example, a CO2 emitting at 10.6 ?m is focused onto a silicon wafer as a line beam and a second laser source, for example, a GaAs laser bar emitting at 808 nm is focused onto the wafer as a larger beam surrounding the line beam. The two beams are scanned in synchronism in the direction of the narrow dimension of the line beam to create a narrow heating pulse from the line beam when activated by the larger beam. The energy of GaAs radiation is greater than the silicon bandgap energy and creates free carriers. The energy of the CO2 radiation is less than the silicon bandgap energy so silicon is otherwise transparent to it, but the long wavelength radiation is absorbed by the free carriers.

Abstract: An apparatus for cutting frozen fish bait comprising a cutting head having a plurality of spaced-apart cutting blades (50) which are slidably moved between a stack of spacer blocks (26). The blocks include openings (42) to define a tunnel extending from top to bottom of the stack. The blades (50) have a retracted position and an extended position moving across the tunnel. A bottom gate (124) holds its frozen bait in the tunnel until the blades have sliced the bait into pieces. A fluid actuated cylinder (80) and piston 78 are attached to a blade mounting member (60) to provide the cutting power. A cycling valve (94), reversing valve (100) and actuator mechanism (110) provide operator control of the devices contained in housing (12).