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

M. Ortiz-Morales a,b,, C. Frausto-Reyes b, J.J. Soto-Bernal a, S.E. Acosta-Ortiz c, R. Gonzalez-Mota a,I. Rosales-Candelas a

a Instituto Tecnolgico de Aguascalientes, Lab. de Optoelectronica, Av. A. Lopez Mateos 1801 Ote. Fracc Bonagens, Aguascalientes 20256, MexicobCentro de Investigaciones en ptica, A.C. Prol. Constitucin 607, Fracc. Reserva Loma Bonita, Aguascalientes 20200, Mexicoc Lasertech, S.A. de C.V. Blvd. Olivares Santana 113, Fracc. El Dorado, Aguascalientes 20235, Mexico

h i g h l i g h t s

Periodic patterns of different oxideszones were generated by IR laserirradiation.

The films generated were attached tothe metal by laser irradiation.

After laser irradiation an elementalredistribution for each oxide zonewas observed.

g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 8 November 2013Received in revised form 26 February 2014Accepted 27 February 2014Available online 15 March 2014

Keywords:Iron oxidesLaser irradiationStainless steelRaman spectroscopy

a b s t r a c t

Nanosecond-pulsed, infrared (1064 nm) laser irradiation was used to create periodic metal oxide coatingson the surface of two samples of commercial stainless steel at ambient conditions. A pattern of four dif-ferent metal oxide zones was created using a galvanometer scanning head and a focused laser beam overeach 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 charac-terize 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 ofthe generated oxides have different intensity profiles, which suggest different oxide phases such as mag-netite 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 togenerate periodic patterns of various iron oxide zones by laser irradiation, of stainless steel at ambientconditions, and that Raman spectroscopy is a useful punctual technique for the analysis and inspectionof small oxide areas.

2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Nowadays, iron oxides play an important role in several disci-plines such as chemistry, corrosion science, geology, soil science,

biology and medicine. Their applications are growing with thedevelopment of synthesis methods that allow creating iron oxideswith specific characteristics; they are used as catalysts for otherprocesses or as transport agents in medicine [1]. All iron oxidesconsist mainly of Fe and O but differ in composition and crystalstructure. Iron oxides are of great interest for a variety of applica-tions including opto-electronics, medicine, environmental remedi-ation, pigments, corrosion protection, and gas sensing, amongothers [25].

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2014.02.2011386-1425/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author at: Centro de Investigaciones en ptica, A.C. Prol.Constitucin 607, Fracc. Reserva Loma Bonita, Aguascalientes 20200, Mexico. Tel.:+52 (449) 4428124; fax: +52 (449) 4428127.

E-mail address: maortiz@cio.mx (M. Ortiz-Morales).

Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 128 (2014) 681685

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