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Light is critical for art. It allows us to see color, and can itself be a tool for creating unique pieces of art and design. Here we demonstrate that a laser can be a multifunctional and effective tool for the creation of masterpieces, analogous to the process of an artist creating a canvas with classical paints and brushes. We investigate the interaction between focused laser irradiation and metallic surfaces and analyze the optical effects in thin oxide films for three main artistic operations: color making, multiple color changes, and erasing managed by a nanosecond laser. These processes are possible upon heating the material above the evaporation point and are proved to be dependent on the cooling rate, according to both experimental and theoretical results. Such an interference-based laser paintbrush could find applications in modern art and design.

In this work, we have used a nanosecond pulsed fiber laser to modify the wettability characteristics of AISI 430 steel. For this, various surface morphologies were created on the samples by laser irradiation with different overlapping and intensity parameters. Immediately upon laser treatment, all the structured samples acquired either hydrophilic or superhydrophilic wetting angles. All the samples were also analyzed with XRD. Then, laser-treated samples were kept in ambient air and/or low-temperature annealing was applied to reach hydrophobic surface properties. Interestingly, these surfaces returned back practically to their initial wetting state by cleaning in an ultrasonic bath. The obtained results are analyzed based on the existing wettability models.

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Colorit" technology of color laser labeling of metals, including precious ones, is presented, which allows to apply a color image without the use of pigments and dyes. The labeling technology is based on various optical effects: interference, diffraction of light and surface plasmon resonance. The images are of high resolution and have several degrees of protection, which makes it possible to use the method to protect products from falsification.