Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-17-2025
Abstract
Laser color marking produces nearly permanent, environmentally friendly, vibrant colors on surfaces. However, previous work has used high-power-density pulsed lasers to induce the physicochemical reactions for marking. Here, laser color marking on stainless steel 304 (SS304) is performed with a less expensive continuous wave (CW) laser and a power density five orders of magnitude below that previously reported by combining an electrochemical cell with a fluorescence microscope. Using a combination of optical microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and bulk electrochemistry, it is demonstrated that the laser-induced luminescence and colors are due to enrichment (32 ± 9% increase) of Cr2O3 in the SS304 passive film. It is shown that the enrichment proceeds by a different chemical mechanism than the oxygen pyrolysis that occurs in typical laser color marking. The technique provides a new pathway for laser color marking of metals in industrial settings with applications as diverse as solar absorbers or corrosion prevention.
Keywords
304 stainless steel, laser-induced oxidation, laser writing, luminescence, metal interface, optical microscopy, oxide
Language
English
Publication Title
Advanced Materials Interfaces
Rights
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Z. J. Pfaffenberger, L. Liu, T. K. J. Kim, V. Venkataramani, L. Kisley, Electrochemically-Assisted Low Power Density Laser Writing on Stainless Steel via Enrichment of Chromium Oxides. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2025, 12, 2500240. https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202500240
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version