Abstract
Picosecond laser device is used to treat Aluminum samples, the appearance of the treated samples is affected by the variation of laser focus distance and the samples surface roughness. Samples with smoother surface before laser treatments show dark colors and high increase in surface roughness after laser treatments, while samples with rougher surfaces before laser treatments show brighter colors with slightly change in surface roughness after the laser treatments. The surface texture, topography, and roughness of the treated samples is characterized to identify the mechanism driving appearance change. The characterization results indicate that size and shape of laser processing induced microscale cavities on the surface may account for the differences in samples appearance. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.