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. 2017 Aug 2;7(1):7092.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-07373-8.

Nanosecond laser coloration on stainless steel surface

Yan Lu  1   2 , Xinying Shi  3 , Zhongjia Huang  4 , Taohai Li  5 , Meng Zhang  6 , Jakub Czajkowski  7 , Tapio Fabritius  7 , Marko Huttula  3 , Wei Cao  8
Affiliations

Nanosecond laser coloration on stainless steel surface

Yan Lu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

In this work, we present laser coloration on 304 stainless steel using nanosecond laser. Surface modifications are tuned by adjusting laser parameters of scanning speed, repetition rate, and pulse width. A comprehensive study of the physical mechanism leading to the appearance is presented. Microscopic patterns are measured and employed as input to simulate light-matter interferences, while chemical states and crystal structures of composites to figure out intrinsic colors. Quantitative analysis clarifies the final colors and RGB values are the combinations of structural colors and intrinsic colors from the oxidized pigments, with the latter dominating. Therefore, the engineering and scientific insights of nanosecond laser coloration highlight large-scale utilization of the present route for colorful and resistant steels.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Optical microscopy images of the colorized surface. (a) Sample 1, straw-yellow, (b) Sample 2, cornflower-blue, (c) Sample 3, fuchsia. Photos of insets were taken by digital camera.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Optical reflectance property measured with incident angles of: (a) 30°, (b) 70°.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Morphologies of laser marking and the simulation results of reflectance. (a)~(c) SEM images of sample 1~3, respectively. (d) Simulation results of optical reflectance.
Figure 4
Figure 4
XPS spectra of: (a) Cr 2p, (b) Fe 2p. In each panel, the spectra of the three samples are illustrated. Each pair of doublet peaks were illustrated with identical color. The scatter plots are experimental results, while the magenta and grey lines represent the fitting envelopes and backgrounds, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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