To fulfil the requirements for high-resolution organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, precise and high-quality micrometer-scale patterns have to be fabricated inside metal shadow masks. Invar has been selected for this application due to its unique properties, especially a low coefficient of thermal expansion. In this study, a novel cost-efficient method of multi-beam micromachining of invar will be introduced. The combination of a Meopta beam splitting, focusing and monitoring module with a galvanometer scanner and HiLASE high-energy pulse laser system emitting ultrashort pulses at 515 nm allows drilling and cutting of invar foil with 784 beams at once with high precision and almost no thermal effects and heat-affected zone, thus significantly improving the throughput and efficiency.

In this paper, we introduce a method to efficiently use a high-energy pulsed 1.7 ps HiLASE Perla laser system for two beam interference patterning. The newly developed method of large-beam interference patterning permits the production of micro and sub-micron sized features on a treated surface with increased processing throughputs by enlarging the interference area. The limits for beam enlarging are explained and calculated for the used laser source. The formation of a variety of surface micro and nanostructures and their combinations are reported on stainless steel, invar, and tungsten with the maximum fabrication speed of 206 cm²/min. The wettability of selected hierarchical structures combining interference patterns with 2.6 µm periodicity and the nanoscale surface structures on top were analyzed showing superhydrophobic behavior with contact angles of 164°, 156°, and 150° in the case of stainless steel, invar, and tungsten, respectively.

Superhydrophobic surfaces attract a lot of attention due to many potential applications including anti-icing, anti-corrosion, self-cleaning or drag-reduction surfaces. Despite a list of attractive applications of superhydrophobic surfaces and demonstrated capability of lasers to produce them, the speed of laser micro and nanostructuring is still low with respect to many industry standards. Up-to-now, most promising multi-beam solutions can improve processing speed a hundred to a thousand times. However, productive and efficient utilization of a new generation of kW-class ultrashort pulsed lasers for precise nanostructuring requires a much higher number of beams. In this work, we introduce a unique combination of high-energy pulsed ultrashort laser system delivering up to 20 mJ at 1030 nm in 1.7 ps and novel Diffractive Laser-Induced Texturing element (DLITe) capable of producing 201 × 201 sub-beams of 5 µm in diameter on a square area of 1 mm². Simultaneous nanostructuring with 40,401 sub-beams resulted in a matrix of microcraters covered by nanogratings and ripples with periodicity below 470 nm and 720 nm, respectively. The processed area demonstrated hydrophobic to superhydrophobic properties with a maximum contact angle of 153°.

Long-term stability and laser-induced damage resistance of optical components in the UV region are critical for enhancing their performance in UV high-power laser applications. This study evaluates the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of commercially available UV optical windows with anti-reflective (AR) coating, produced through various coating techniques and designed for high-power lasers. A third-harmonic (343 nm) wavelength with good beam quality was generated in the picosecond regime to investigate the LIDT of optical components. The LIDT for each sample was measured under controlled conditions and compared based on their coating techniques. The sample coated with Al₂O₃/SiO₂ through ion beam sputtering has the best LIDT value, of 0.6 J/cm², among the tested samples, based on the hundred-thousand-pulses methodology. The damage threshold curve and the corresponding damage morphology are discussed in detail, and these findings provide insights into the durability and susceptibility of UV optics for advanced laser systems available in the market.

The effects of laser shock peening (LSP) on subtractively manufactured (SM) and additively manufactured (AM) Ti–6Al–4V alloys in pH 2 buffer solution were investigated. LSP increased the surface roughness from 0.25 ± 0.05 μm to 0.6 ± 0.1 μm, raised Vickers hardness by 12–16%, and introduced compressive residual stresses of 400–950 MPa. Microstructural analysis indicated that LSP promoted β-phase formation and grain refinement in SM alloys, while reducing the α′-phase fraction in AM alloys. Electrochemical testing revealed that all LSP-treated specimens exhibited active–passive transitions, unlike the stable passive response of unpeened samples. The corrosion rate (i_corr) decreased from approximately 5 × 10⁻⁶ to 1 × 10⁻⁶ A·cm⁻² after LSP. During 24 h potentiostatic polarization at 1.3 V_SCE, the passive current density stabilized at 10⁻⁸–10⁻⁷ A·cm⁻², with LSP AM specimens exhibiting values approximately twice those of their unpeened counterparts. Mott–Schottky analysis confirmed that the donor density (N_D) in the SM alloy changed negligibly after LSP, indicating a stable passive alloy. In contrast, the N_D for the AM alloy increased from 1 × 10¹⁹ to 3 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³, suggesting an oxygen-vacancy-rich, less stable passive film. Overall, LSP reduces the corrosion rate primarily through the introduction of compressive residual stress but may impair the long-term passive-film stability of AM Ti–6Al–4V owing to defect generation. In contrast, the SM alloy maintains passive-film stability under identical treatment conditions.