Effect of nanosecond pulse laser ablation on the surface morphology of Zr-based metallic glass

In this study, we investigated the ripple patterns formation on the surface of Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 (vit1) bulk metallic glass using a nanosecond pulse laser ablation in air with a wavelength of 1064nm. The strong thermal ablation phenomenon could be observed on vit1 BMG surface at laser energy of 200mJ as a result of the adhibition of confining overlay. Many periodic ripples had formed on the edge of the ablated area at laser energy of 400mJ because of the high intensity pulsed laser beam. The underlying mechanism of the periodic ripples formation could be explained by the K-H hydrodynamic instability theory. It had been shown that laser ablation with 600mJ and 200 pulses results in the formation of many micro-cracks on the ablated area. Further analysis showed that the spatial occupation of the laser ablated area and the spacing between two adjacent ripples increased as the laser energy and the number of incident laser pulses increasing. The surface ripples feature on the edge of ablated area became more obvious with increasing laser pulses, but it was not correlated closely with the laser energies variation. •Generated periodic surface ripples via 1064nm nanosecond laser ablation.•The formation mechanisms of the periodic ripples induced by nanosecond laser ablation are analyzed.•The ablated morphologies evolution at various laser energies and multiple pulses was systematically studied.•Many cracks formed on the ablated area with 600mJ and 200 pulses.