Effect Of Pulse Duration On Tribological Behavior Of Textured Stainless Steel By Laser Surface Texturing

Laser surface texturing has been demonstrated as a powerful technique for fabrication of surface textures on solids. The accuracy of textures fabricated by laser surface texturing is greatly influenced by laser beam parameters. In the present work, we fabricate aligned grooved microstructures with the same morphology on stainless steel by laser surface texturing with different pulse durations (from nanosecond to femtosecond). It is found that both the rim structure on the crest and the ablation-induced damage on the valley are different for different pulse durations, which are attributed to both different laser-material interactions and sizes of heat affected zone. Subsequent ball-on-disk friction tests show that the presence of as-fabricated textures lowers friction coefficient and wear of textured surface compared to untextured surface. Furthermore, the pulse duration has a significant influence on the effectiveness of surface textures in friction reduction.