A short review on functionalized metallic surfaces by ultrafast laser micromachining

Surface functionalization of metallic micro-nanoscale system is an emerging strategy for the realization of multifunctional materials. As a facile one-step process, ultrafast laser micromachining has emerged in recent years as a new technique for micro-nanostructure fabrication. In the past, lots of investigations on ultrafast laser micromachining were focused to understand the complex ablation mechanism, whereas recent works are mostly concerned with the fabrication of various metallic surface structures owing to their numerous potential functions, such as wetting, metallurgical and optical properties. This paper provides a short overview of advances in fabrication of functionalized metallic surfaces by ultrafast laser micromachining. The principles of interaction between ultrafast laser and metallic materials are provided. According to the surface topography, state-of-the-art knowledge on the fabrication of surface functionalization using ultrafast laser are presented. Functionalized properties of laser micro-machined metals are given. In addition, the challenges and outlooks in surface functionalized metals are presented.