Femtosecond laser ablation behavior of SiC/SiC composites in air and water environment

SiC/SiC composites (SiC matrix with SiC fibers) play an important role in aerospace and energy fields because of their excellent resistance to high temperature, corrosion, oxidation and low density. In this paper, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the ablation behavior of femtosecond laser processed SiC/SiC composites in air and water environments using multiple characterization tools to explain the formation of several typical features and component changes. The results shown that ablation in air characterized as thermochemical corrosion dominance, while in water expressed as thermomechanical denudation and thermochemical corrosion. The temperature and oxygen content in the ablation region are the main reasons for these two corrosion mechanisms.