Sub-picosecond single-pulse laser ablation of the CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy and comparison to stainless steel AISI 304

In recent years, high entropy alloy research has experienced increased interest and it was found that some of these materials have extraordinary properties. High entropy alloys also show an increased damage resistance to high-energy particle irradiation, mainly due to effects caused by the increased configuration entropy. So far, no detailed studies have been carried out regarding the interaction with high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly by means of lasers. In this work, we compare results of ultrashort-pulse laser-matter interaction of the CrMnFeCoNi alloy (Cantor alloy), the most researched representative of this material group, with the conventional alloy stainless steel AISI 304. Since metals can in general be processed efficiently with ultrashort pulses, which is of particular interest for industrial applications, we performed our experiments with single infrared sub-picosecond pulses. The crater surface morphology and process energetics are discussed in detail and the validity of established ablation models is investigated. We find that the damage threshold of the CrMnFeCoNi alloy is slightly lower than that of AISI 304 and consequently CrMnFeCoNi alloy shows an increased ablation volume. Therefore, the high entropy alloy CrMnFeCoNi can be processed efficiently with ultrashort-pulse lasers.