Laser Processing: Surface Treatment and Film Deposition

The laser is an ideal tool for surface treatment. Radiant energy is absorbed in the top few layers of an opaque material, where it can heat the surface or excite the surface atoms, leading to pyrolytic or photolytic processes. Laser irradiation is also chemically clean. The principal industrial advantages of laser surface treatment are: the thermally affected region is easily controlled in terms of depth, extent and time due to the ease with which the energy can be shaped and switched; the process is chemically clean; there is no need to touch the workpiece; automation is usually possible due to the absence of environmental disturbance while the radiant energy is delivered to the process: in-process sensing and control is therefore facilitated. §With these significant advantages it is surprising to discover that the industrial use of the laser for surface treatment has been slow to take off. Possibly this may be simply due to the lack of engineers sufficiently fluent in laser applications. What one needs is a critical mass of such people, which is something to look forward to. Laser Processing: Surface Treatment and Film Deposition makes a major contribution to the recruitment of such talented persons.