Effect of defocusing distance on the contaminated surface of brass ring with nanosecond laser in a 3D laser scanning system

Defocusing distance plays a key role in laser cleaning result and can be either positive or negative, depending on the focus position relative to the sample surface. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the defocusing distance on the cleaning efficiency of oxidized brass surface. The oxide layer from the surface of a brass ring was processed with a three dimensional (3-D) dynamically focused laser galvanometer scanning system. The relationship between removal efficiency of the oxide layer and the defocusing distance was analyzed. The sample surface topography, element content before and after the laser cleaning were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the surface quality after laser cleaning was analyzed by a Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), the chemical constituents of the oxide layer on the sample surface after being processed with different defocusing distances were examined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The results show that the ratios of Cu/O and Zn/O reach the maximum of 53.2 and 27.78 respectively when the defocusing distance is +0.5 mm. The laser pulses will lose the ability to remove the oxide layer from the substrate surface when the defocusing distance is larger than +/- 2 mm. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.