Influence of the time profile of a laser pulse on the thickness of a laser–hardened layer

A one-dimensional linear approximation is used to simulate laser processing of materials by pulses of different time profile. It is shown that the efficiency of a laser heat treatment improves when the laser time profile is nearly triangular with the steepest possible leading edge. The problems in laser technology involving the melting and evaporation of materials can be solved by deposition of the minimum laser energy in the form of triangular pulses with a gently sloping leading edge.