Laser Materials Processing

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, industrial production processes are inconceivable without lasers. Lasers have been established in numerous areas of materials processing, like cutting, drilling and welding. A broad variety of available laser systems with different wavelengths, pulse durations, and intensities facilitate the processing of almost all types of materials, including metals, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers, and composites. The main advantages of laser-based technologies include their high flexibility and efficiency, the reproducible adjustability of processing parameters, and the excellent quality of processed products. The required amount of energy can be provided in a well-defined, locally limited volume with negligible heat transfer to surrounding components. These unique properties are continuously stimulating new applications of lasers as a tool in materials processing. Consequently, novel processing routes in surface engineering (micro- and nanostructuring; laser induced periodic surface structures), additive manufacturing (stereolithography; selective laser sintering), coating techniques (pulsed laser deposition; matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation), and nanoparticle synthesis (laser ablation; laser vaporisation) are on their way from research to industrial application.

This Special Issue covers the whole spectrum of laser materials processing, ranging from novel trends in well-established industrial processing techniques like cutting and drilling, via the synthesis of functional nanoparticles and coatings, the fabrication of sub-wavelength surface structures up to additive manufacturing techniques for the preparation of 3D scaffolds. The performance and application of laser-processed materials in the fields of biomaterials, optics, energy and environmental technologies will be discussed. In addition, fundamental research concerning the interaction between laser radiation and matter, as well as simulations and modeling of formation processes and structure-property relations will be topics of specific interest.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, short communications, as well as reviews, would be greatly appreciated.

Prof. Dr. Frank A. Müller
Dr. Stephan Gräf
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.