Enhanced corrosion resistance of Mg and Mg alloys with fs-laser printed hydrophobic and periodically microrippled surface for armor application

•A temporally shaped fs-laser directly-writing method was presented to print corrosion resistant armor on metal surface.•The structure morphology can be controlled by only adjusting the fs-laser parameters.•A less than 15 μm grain refined layer consists of nanocrystals (<10 nm) formed on surface.•The designed protective armor shows approximately 200 times shallower corrosion pits.•Both the Mg and Mg alloys (AZ91D) with printed armor show distinctly improved corrosion resistant performance.