On the relationship between the dynamics of the power density and workpiece surface texture in pulsed laser ablation

The use of pulsed laser ablation to generate controlled 3D micro features in various materials needs to control the effect of superposition of individual laser footprints upon surface geometry. Starting from the actual footprint of a single laser shot, the paper presents a model that enables the prediction of surface texture in pulsed laser ablation; the model is simple, yet effective by considering dynamics process parameters (pulse duration, frequency, scanning speed), allows the use of different beam energy distributions while being independent on the target material. Validation trials performed in Ti6Al4V showed a maximum error in predicting surface texture of 9%.