Can I cut mirrored acrylic or will that cause reflection?
I have cut and engraved it with no problem as have others.
Per Glowforge, mirrored acrylic is non-reflective to the Glowforge laser beam and will cut just the same as normal acrylic.
Acrylic seems to work fine. Some plastics even block UV light, but none I have used yet seemed to matter (other than extruded wanting to slag and melt, that is).
However, I tried some mirrored card stock once, and could hardly touch it. I finally turned it over and could cut from non-reflective back, but looked fairly burnt with char on edges when done.
You could always mask the reflective card stock and it should work fine.
I think it’s Infrared that matters to the GF’s CO2 laser.
You are correct.
Like other CO2 lasers, the Glowforge beam is in the infrared frequency (~10,600 nm).