ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses processes of thermochemical origin developing when metals are exposed to the laser irradiation in chemically active environments. The reaction products which grow during laser irradiation of solid surfaces in contact with a chemically active gas may reach a thickness and have a growth rate sufficiently high to result in a significant change in the radiation-target interaction. Continuous wave (cw) CO2 laser radiation was focused through a lens on the surface of the metallic foil placed in air, close to the slit in the wall of the photometric sphere. Besides the laser cleaning effect, low-temperature heating determines, for the majority of metals, the formation of thin oxide layers. The idea of using thermochemical surface reactions to increase the efficiency of thermal processing of metals under the action of cw CO2 lasers belongs to A. Sullivan and P. Houldcroft.
