A bibliometric analysis for the research on laser processing based on Web of Science

Laser processing technology is one of the most important technologies in the 21st century and is becoming an area of great potential in manufacturing. There is an increase in the quality and quantity of publications related to this topic. To formally illustrate the research status of laser processing at a global level, the bibliometric analysis was used based on Web of Science database; 3958 documents were retrieved and countries or regions, institutions, journals, authors, research areas, author keywords, and highly cited articles were discussed in detail, respectively. Results show that China is the dominant country in this field, followed by the USA and Germany. Greece has the most collaborated articles, and Germany was the most active country that cooperated with another 19 countries or regions, especially with the USA, France, and China. Applied Surface Science is the most productive journal with the highest influence factor, and the University of California System has the highest h-index. "Material science, Multidisciplinary" is the most attractive area, with 1777 documents involved in it. In addition, the major hot topics concluded by author keywords are "laser processing," "micro-structure," and "thin film." Finally, "intelligent laser processing" and "production scheduling" are given as the potential research hotspot in the near future.