Case study for the formation of a surface alloy on cemented tungsten carbide using ultrashort MHz to GHz burst-pulses

The authors of this paper report on the generation and utilization of high-frequency combined MHz- and GHz-bursts consisting of ultrashort laser pulses in order to form a surface alloy on the composite material cemented tungsten carbide. The resulting topographies, ablation depths and chemical compositions of the irradiated material surfaces were characterized with respect to the modification of the surface of a composite material whose elements tungsten carbide (WC) and cobalt (Co) permit the formation of a surface alloy only in a common meta-stable liquid phase. The results of this case study demonstrate that using high-frequency bursts of ultrashort laser pulses in the investigated parameter range, the formation of a surface alloy is possible without a tendency to change the chemical composition of WC and Co, and the depth of re-solidified material depends on the combination of MHz and GHz burst-pulses.

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