Infrared nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation of stainless steel: micro iron-oxide zones generation

Nanosecond-pulsed, infrared (1064 nm) laser irradiation was used to create periodic metal oxide coatings on the surface of two samples of commercial stainless steel at ambient conditions. A pattern of four different metal oxide zones was created using a galvanometer scanning head and a focused laser beam over each sample. This pattern is related to traverse direction of the laser beam scanning. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to find the elemental composition and Raman spectroscopy to characterize each oxide zone. Pulsed laser irradiation modified the composition of the stainless steel samples, affecting the concentration of the main components within each heat affected zone. The Raman spectra of the generated oxides have different intensity profiles, which suggest different oxide phases such as magnetite and maghemite. In addition, these oxides are not sensible to the laser power of the Raman system, as are the iron oxide powders reported in the literature. These experiments show that it is possible to generate periodic patterns of various iron oxide zones by laser irradiation, of stainless steel at ambient conditions, and that Raman spectroscopy is a useful punctual technique for the analysis and inspection of small oxide areas.