Blackening effect in an implant steel by ultrashort laser pulses

Abstract

In this work, we studied the possibility of turning black the surface of an ASTM F138 stainless steel sample after irradiation by femtosecond laser pulses. The irradiations were performed varying the number N of laser pulse overlapped. After irradiation there was a visible change in coloration of the samples, which became darker as we increase the overlap rate. Employing this technique is a considerable way to produce high contrast markings without any changes in the metal microstructure, neither the formation of oxides coatings, which is important for a material with the level of accuracy required by this kind of implant