Surface coloring by laser irradiation of solid substrates

Laser marking has become a versatile method for industrial product identification because of its applicability to almost all kinds of solid materials in a simple and single-step process. However, traditional laser marking generally produces contrast marks which are often monochromatic. There is increasing interest in color marking by laser processing for decoration and visual attraction. This tutorial provides a digest of the recent advancement of laser coloring technologies for surface coloration. An overview of existing methods for laser coloring is summarized, and three distinct physics mechanisms behind color formation are discussed. It is found that the coloration of diverse solid surfaces originates from laser induced oxidation, surface structuring, and micro/nanoparticles generation. How the laser processing parameters and experimental conditions affect the resulting colors is also presented. The laser coloring technique is capable of producing complete Hue palettes on metal surfaces by the precise control of laser processing parameters and will find much more extensive applications.Laser marking has become a versatile method for industrial product identification because of its applicability to almost all kinds of solid materials in a simple and single-step process. However, traditional laser marking generally produces contrast marks which are often monochromatic. There is increasing interest in color marking by laser processing for decoration and visual attraction. This tutorial provides a digest of the recent advancement of laser coloring technologies for surface coloration. An overview of existing methods for laser coloring is summarized, and three distinct physics mechanisms behind color formation are discussed. It is found that the coloration of diverse solid surfaces originates from laser induced oxidation, surface structuring, and micro/nanoparticles generation. How the laser processing parameters and experimental conditions affect the resulting colors is also presented. The laser coloring technique is capable of producing complete Hue palettes on metal surfaces by the precise...

[1]  M. Birnbaum.  Semiconductor Surface Damage Produced by Ruby Lasers , 1965 .

[2]  J. West,et al.  Laser-induced oxidation of silicon , 1981 .

[3]  M. Wautelet,et al.  Laser-induced oxidation of thin cadmium and copper films , 1983 .

[4]  Jeff F. Young,et al.  Laser-induced periodic surface structure. I. Theory , 1983 .

[5]  M. Wautelet.  Oxidation of thin Cd, Cu and Te films under continuous laser irradiation , 1983 .

[6]  Jeff F. Young,et al.  Laser-induced periodic surface structure. II. Experiments on Ge, Si, Al, and brass , 1983 .

[7]  R. J. Wilson,et al.  Optical self‐regulation during laser‐induced oxidation of copper , 1987 .

[8]  Mikhail N. Libenson,et al.  Surface electromagnetic waves in optics , 1992 .

[9]  Thomas F. George,et al.  Laser-induced oxidation of metals: state of the art , 1997 .

[10]  A. B. Vannes,et al.  Surface modification and tribological behaviour of titanium and titanium alloys after YAG-laser treatments , 1998 .

[11]  Andrew R. Parker,et al.  515 million years of structural colour , 2000 .

[12]  Yongfeng Lu,et al.  Laser coloration and bleaching of amorphous WO3 thin film , 2000 .

[13]  Eric Mazur,et al.  Near-unity below-band-gap absorption by microstructured silicon , 2001 .

[14]  J. L. Tan,et al.  Process study for laser-induced surface coloration , 2002 .

[15]  Á. D. Pino,et al.  Oxidation of titanium through Nd:YAG laser irradiation , 2002 .

[16]  Á. D. Pino,et al.  Coloring of titanium by pulsed laser processing in air , 2002 .

[17]  Harold K. Haugen,et al.  Subwavelength ripple formation on the surfaces of compound semiconductors irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses , 2003 .

[18]  E. Coronado,et al.  The Optical Properties of Metal Nanoparticles: The Influence of Size, Shape, and Dielectric Environment , 2003 .

[19]  Anatoly V. Zayats,et al.  Near-field photonics: surface plasmon polaritons and localized surface plasmons , 2003 .

[20]  K. Wang,et al.  A study on the laser marking process of stainless steel , 2003 .

[21]  Savas Georgiou,et al.  Surface nanostructuring of metals by laser irradiation: effects of pulse duration, wavelength and gas atmosphere , 2004 .

[22]  Á. D. Pino,et al.  Coloring of titanium through laser oxidation: comparative study with anodizing , 2004 .

[23]  Á. Pérez del Pino,et al.  Structure formation on titanium during oxidation induced by cumulative pulsed Nd:YAG laser irradiation , 2004 .

[24]  E. Mazur,et al.  Infrared absorption by sulfur-doped silicon formed by femtosecond laser irradiation , 2004 .

[25]  Eric Mazur,et al.  Role of the Background Gas in the Morphology and Optical Properties of Laser-Microstructured Silicon , 2005 .

[26]  Cyril Hnatovsky,et al.  Pulse duration dependence of femtosecond-laser-fabricated nanogratings in fused silica , 2005 .

[27]  G. A. Shafeev,et al.  NANOSTRUCTURES: Formation of nanostructures upon laser ablation of silver in liquids , 2006 .

[28]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Periodic ordering of random surface nanostructures induced by femtosecond laser pulses on metals , 2007 .

[29]  R. V. Van Duyne,et al.  Localized surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and sensing. , 2007, Annual review of physical chemistry.

[30]  L. Lavisse,et al.  Pulsed laser growth and characterization of thin films on titanium substrates , 2007 .

[31]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structure formation on tungsten , 2008 .

[32]  Sarah O'Hana,et al.  Laser surface colouring of titanium for contemporary jewellery , 2008 .

[33]  A. Vorobyev,et al.  Spectral and polarization responses of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on metals , 2008 .

[34]  K. Nishihara,et al.  New mechanism of the formation of the nanorelief on a surface irradiated by a femtosecond laser pulse , 2008 .

[35]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Colorizing metals with femtosecond laser pulses , 2008 .

[36]  R. S. Makin,et al.  Dissipative nanostructures and Feigenbaum’s universality in the “Metal-high-power ultrashort-pulsed polarized radiation” nonequilibrium nonlinear dynamical system , 2008 .

[37]  J. Zhang,et al.  Plasmonic Optical Properties and Applications of Metal Nanostructures , 2008 .

[38]  Mengyan Shen,et al.  High-density regular arrays of nanometer-scale rods formed on silicon surfaces via femtosecond laser irradiation in water. , 2008, Nano letters.

[39]  Hongyu Zheng,et al.  Analysis of oxide formation induced by UV laser coloration of stainless steel , 2009 .

[40]  Shigeki Tokita,et al.  Mechanism for self-formation of periodic grating structures on a metal surface by a femtosecond laser pulse , 2009 .

[41]  Costas Fotakis,et al.  Femtosecond laser writing of nanostructures on bulk Al via its ablation in air and liquids , 2009 .

[42]  Yoshiharu Namba,et al.  Regular subwavelength surface structures induced by femtosecond laser pulses on stainless steel. , 2009, Optics letters.

[43]  G. A. Shafeev,et al.  Laser writing of nanostructures on bulk Al via its ablation in liquids , 2009, Nanotechnology.

[44]  Shigeki Tokita,et al.  Laser fluence dependence of periodic grating structures formed on metal surfaces under femtosecond laser pulse irradiation , 2010 .

[45]  Zhi‐zhan Xu,et al.  The morphological and optical characteristics of femtosecond laser-induced large-area micro/nanostructures on GaAs, Si, and brass. , 2010, Optics express.

[46]  Mool C. Gupta,et al.  Ultralow reflectance metal surfaces by ultrafast laser texturing , 2010 .

[47]  Markku Kuittinen,et al.  Modeling of laser-colored stainless steel surfaces by color pixels , 2010 .

[48]  E. Audouard,et al.  Controlled nanostructrures formation by ultra fast laser pulses for color marking. , 2010, Optics express.

[49]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Angular effects of nanostructure-covered femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures on metals , 2010 .

[50]  Guoqiang Li,et al.  Formation of colorized silicon by femtosecond laser pulses in different background gases , 2011 .

[51]  S. Varlamov,et al.  Modeling of the laser polarization as control parameter in self-organized surface pattern. , 2011, Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

[52]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Antireflection effect of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures on silicon. , 2011, Optics express.

[53]  A. Ionin,et al.  Surface nanostructuring of Ni/Cu foilsby femtosecond laser pulses , 2011 .

[54]  Vyacheslav A. Trofimov,et al.  Selective appearance of several laser-induced periodic surface structure patterns on a metal surface using structural colors produced by femtosecond laser pulses , 2012 .

[55]  Jörg Krüger,et al.  Femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures , 2012 .

[56]  T. M. Lysak,et al.  Colorizing silicon surface with regular nanohole arrays induced by femtosecond laser pulses. , 2012, Optics letters.

[57]  A. Ionin,et al.  Femtosecond laser color marking of metal and semiconductor surfaces , 2012 .

[58]  Mark A. Rodriguez,et al.  Nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation of stainless steel 304L: Oxide growth and effects on underlying metal , 2012 .

[59]  Krzysztof M. Abramski,et al.  Laser-induced colour marking—Sensitivity scaling for a stainless steel , 2013 .

[60]  Xiaohong Li,et al.  Evolution of aluminum surface irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with different pulse overlaps , 2013 .

[61]  Chunlei Guo,et al.  Direct femtosecond laser surface nano/microstructuring and its applications , 2013 .

[62]  J. Teng,et al.  Design and fabrication of broadband ultralow reflectivity black Si surfaces by laser micro/nanoprocessing , 2014, Light: Science & Applications.

[63]  E. Gorbunova,et al.  Controlled oxide films formation by nanosecond laser pulses for color marking. , 2014, Optics express.

[64]  M. Zhong,et al.  Superhydrophobic and colorful copper surfaces fabricated by picosecond laser induced periodic nanostructures , 2014 .

[65]  Lin Li,et al.  Angle-independent colorization of copper surfaces by simultaneous generation of picosecond-laser-induced nanostructures and redeposited nanoparticles , 2014 .

[66]  S. Juodkazis,et al.  Surface and bulk structuring of materials by ripples with long and short laser pulses: Recent advances , 2014 .

[67]  Bradley Howell Jared,et al.  Nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation of titanium: Oxide growth and effects on underlying metal , 2014 .

[68]  Colin A. Grambow,et al.  Fabrication of Micro/Nano Structures on Metals by Femtosecond Laser Micromachining , 2014, Micromachines.

[69]  A. Vorobyev,et al.  Multifunctional surfaces produced by femtosecond laser pulses , 2015 .

[70]  Lih-Mei Yang,et al.  Blackening of metals using femtosecond fiber laser. , 2015, Applied optics.

[71]  Minghui Hong,et al.  Study of micro/nanostructures formed by a nanosecond laser in gaseous environments for stainless steel surface coloring , 2015 .

[72]  E. Amara,et al.  Experimental investigations on fiber laser color marking of steels , 2015 .

[73]  Yanlei Hu,et al.  Femtosecond laser color marking stainless steel surface with different wavelengths , 2015 .

[74]  M. Torkamany,et al.  Liquid Phase Surface Treatment of Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy by Pulsed Nd:YAG Laser , 2015, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance.

[75]  Łukasz K. Łazarek,et al.  Laser-induced oxidation of titanium substrate: Analysis of the physicochemical structure of the surface and sub-surface layers , 2015 .

[76]  Stefan Simeonov Dimov,et al.  Laser induced single spot oxidation of titanium , 2016 .

[77]  M. Kucera,et al.  Thermal effects of laser marking on microstructure and corrosion properties of stainless steel. , 2016, Applied optics.

[78]  D. Poitras,et al.  Laser-induced plasmonic colours on metals , 2016, Nature Communications.

[79]  Krzysztof M. Abramski,et al.  Effects of laser-induced oxidation on the corrosion resistance of AISI 304 stainless steel , 2016 .

[80]  Elena V. Gorbunova,et al.  Development of complete color palette based on spectrophotometric measurements of steel oxidation results for enhancement of color laser marking technology , 2016 .

[81]  J. Czajkowski,et al.  Nanosecond laser coloration on stainless steel surface , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[82]  A. Weck,et al.  Passivation of Plasmonic Colors on Bulk Silver by Atomic Layer Deposition of Aluminum Oxide. , 2018, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[83]  M. Hong,et al.  Enhancement of laser ablation via interacting spatial double-pulse effect , 2018 .

[84]  Rui Zhou,et al.  Tunable Coloring via Post-Thermal Annealing of Laser-Processed Metal Surface , 2018, Applied Sciences.

[85]  Landobasa Y. M. Tobing,et al.  Surface plasmon enhanced infrared photodetection , 2019, Opto-Electronic Advances.