Patent ID: 7173227

Claim:
A laser beam processing apparatus comprising: a laser oscillator producing a laser beam for processing an object; a focus head focusing the laser beam output from the laser oscillator onto the object; a photo detecting unit detecting (i) light emanating from the object due to irradiation during processing of the object with the laser beam, and (ii) detecting reference light generated by a reference light generating unit and supplied to the photo detecting unit via a nozzle attached to the focus head; a correlation adjusting unit adjusting correlation between (iii) the light emanating from the object during processing of the object with the laser beam and detected by the photo detecting unit, and (iv) processing condition of the object, the correlation being adjusted based on the reference light detected by the photo detecting unit; and a control unit controlling the laser oscillator in response to monitoring of the processing condition of the object during processing of the object with the laser beam, based on the light emanating from the object during the processing of the object with the laser beam and detected by the photo detecting unit, and based on the correlation that has been adjusted by the correlation adjusting unit.