Experimental Analysis of Microscale Laser Shock Processing on Metallic Material Using Excimer Laser

Microscale laser shock processing (μLSP), also known as laser shock processing in microscale, is a technique that uses microscale focused laser beam to induce high pressure plasma and generates plastic deformation and compressive residual stress in target materials, thus improves fatigue or stress corrosion cracking resistance of MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) devices made of such a material. Many works have been reported about the research and experiment for μLSP. But the diameters of 50–200 μm were used at the first time for this field, which was useful for treating micro-device components with larger area and curved surface. The excimer laser was used firstly on μLSP for shorter wavelength than that of used in previous researches. The determination method of laser spot size at micro-level spatial resolution was presented. Under these conditions, plastic deformation, the stress analysis and microhardness with different pulse number, pulse energy and pulse spacing were investigated. Especially the residual stress distribution with depth treated by μLSP, was first investigated. Experiment results showed that the material performance was improved remarkably after μLSP.