Introduction Amorphous metals have attractive properties, particularly in areas of corrosion resistance, mechanical hardness, wear and fatigue. Advances in metallic glass chemistries with reduced critical cooling rates, T c, have furthered the development of bulk metallic glasses. [1] Glassy metals are formed by rapid solidification of a liquid phase such that nucleation and growth of the preferential crystalline phases is prevented, locking the super-cooled liquid into a metastable phase. Enhanced corrosion resistance from an amorphous state stems from a lack of grain boundaries, secondary phases, compositional segregation, and crystalline defects. Conventional melt spinning techniques with a maximum cooling rate of 10 6 K/s create amorphous ribbons, however the application of ribbons is quite limited. Whereas irradiation of a material with a short laser pulse, ns, establishes rapid melting and solidification velocities at the surface, K/s and m/s respectively. [2]. This research was conducted using the Al-Co-Ce alloy system, a system developed at UVa with an excellent glass forming ability. [6] Bulk polycrystalline ingots were laser surface modified with an excimer laser. Resulting microstructures were correlated with electrochemical analysis and devitrification behavior. This study represents initial research efforts to correlate microstructure and global corrosion resistance as a function of pulsed ultraviolet laser irradiation, specifically focused on the ability of laser surface modification as a means to duplicate the global corrosion resistance of Al-Co-Ce melt spun ribbons. Motivation and Background The aerospace industry desires improvement upon pre-existing high-performance coatings designed to maximize the lifetime of parts exposed to corrosive environments. Military aircraft are clad with a four component system, a base metal, typically AA2024, is covered with Alclad, a chromate cladding, then a chromate-containing primer coating, and finally an epoxy-based topcoat. Each component’s corrosion resistance stems from different mechanisms. Alclad acts as a sacrificial anode, increasing resistance to pitting and exfoliation while conventional chromate conversion coatings and chromate-containing primer coatings protect AA2024 from its high susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking and poor resistance to pitting and exfoliation while acting as anodic protection. [3] However, chromate claddings necessitate replacement due to deleterious environmental hazards of hexavalent chromate, a known carcinogen. The Al-Co-Ce alloy system has tremendous potential as a cladding material. The corrosion resistance arises from its ability to actively inhibit corrosion, serve as an efficient corrosion barrier and act as a sacrificial cathode while functioning in an amorphous state. [4] An absence of grain boundaries, dislocations, secondary phase particles, and localized concentrations of alloying elements removes preferential attack sites, resulting in a more protective oxide film. [7] Localized corrosion, or pitting, is initiated at local flaws, heterogeneities within an oxide film, where damaging species such as chloride may adsorb. The production of metallic glasses requires the vitrification of a melt necessitating high cooling rates. The glass forming ability increases as increasing constituents are added. Conventionally, amorphous structures were produced by splat cooling techniques and more recently by melt spinning which cools the molten liquid on a LN 2 cooled copper wheel, producing an amorphous ribbon as seen on the left in the figure below. The Al-Co-Ce system with enhanced glass solidification chemistries was developed at UVa by Dr. Shiflet and his research group, as seen in the center of the figure below. [5] The figure also shows this system with a reduced critical cooling rate can be amorphous over a wide range of alloy compositions. Both experimental and computational studies concerning the efficacy of the Al-Co-Ce system to function as a tunable corrosion barrier determined the system posses the tunability to function as a barrier coating with enhanced resistance to chloride-induced pitting as compared to pure Al or AA2024, where Ce promoted amorphicity, lower pitting, open circuit, and repassivation potentials However, Co promoted higher repassivation and open circuit potentials as seen below. The large range of open circuit potentials this alloy system has are a benefit in sacrificial cathodic protection as the ability to select an appropriate open circuit potential for a base metal is of great interest. -T3 Open Circuit PotentialsRepassivation Potentials Alloy Melt Copper Wheel Amorphous Ribbon Ejection Pressure Induction Coil Conventional Melt Spinning Technique Reprinted From [5] Development of Amorphous Layered Al 84 Co 8.5 Ce 7.5 Structures by Laser Irradiation for Enhanced Corrosion Resistance Laser Processing A Lambda Physics KrF excimer laser ( = 248 nm, 25 ns at FWHM, 25 Hz) operating at fluences ranging from 0-5 J/cm 2 irradiated a target surface with corresponding velocity between 0-50 mm/s in a controlled He atmosphere at a variety of backfill pressures with a base pressure less than 50 mTorr. A programmable Newport ESP300 motion controller/driver operated two ILS series high precision motion control stages Samples were irradiated from pulses per area (PPA). Studies were performed to determine the effects of fluence and PPA on melt depth, microstructure, and crystallinity. Above a schematic illustrates the principal experimental parameters and below the experimental setup is shown. Experimental Electrochemistry Corrosion experiments were performed in a standard three-electrode cell with deaerated 0.6 M NaCl and a SCE reference electrode using a EG&G 273A potentiostat. Ni reference electrode leads were bonded to the backs of samples with conductive epoxy, while the surface was masked with XP2000 StopOff to avoid preferential pitting of voids and defects. Open circuit scans were followed by potentiodynamic scans to determine the pitting potential, repassivation potential, open circuit potential and behavior. Data was acquired for native, melt spun, and laser surface modified samples. Below a schematic illustrates the standard three-electrode cell used in the electrochemical analysis. Bulk Crystalline Target Melted Layer Target Velocity UV Laser Melt Depth Resolidification Velocity Sample Preparation Samples were composed of polyphase Al 84 Co 8.5 Ce 7.5 ingots arc-melted in an Ar atomsphere using high purity powders. Care was taken to prepare sample surfaces for irradiation and characterization by polishing to a one micron roughness using a Buehler Ecomet 4 polishing wheel and Buehler diamond polish. Typically samples were 1 cm x 1 cm x 0.5 cm. SEM High resolution secondary and backscattered electron imaging were performed using a JSM6700F. Samples were investigated in both plane view and cross-sectional view. The fracture procedure used to investigate melt depth and to correlate melt depth and resultant microstructures to the irradiation conditions is shown below. AES AES depth profiling was performed using a Perkin Elmer PHI 560 ESCA/SAM system. Surface studies of native and laser treated samples were completed to investigate the nominal composition within 10 nm of the surface, specifically concentrating on surface oxides. EDS Qualitative EDS spectra were obtained using a JSM6700F in combination with a Spirit system by Princeton Gamma-Tech. This technique was used to compare the chemistries of the polyphase ingot and laser surface modified specimens, confirming the near 10 micron surface chemistry is similar in laser processed specimens. XRD A Scintag LET 2400 X-ray diffractometer was used to analyze and identify the crystalline and amorphous states of polycrystalline ingots and melt spun ribbons and to ascertain whether the amorphous nature of laser processed samples. SEMFractured Surfaces Sample SEM, AES, EDS, XRD and Electrochemistry Laser Surface Modified Region