Study on high power CW laser’s irradiation effect on yttria-stabilized zirconia coating

With the increasing in laser power, it is necessary to prepare protective coatings for components and devices under high power laser irradiation environment. Yttria-stabilized zirconia has high melting point, good stability and low thermal conductivity, and is often used as thermal barrier coating material. However, the study on its anti high power CW laser performance is rare. In this paper, the yttria-stabilized zirconia coating was deposited using atmospheric plasma spraying. The spectrophotometer, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer were used to characterize the coating before and after high power CW laser irradiation. The temperature of substrate in back side was measured during irradiation. The results show that under the 2000 W/cm² laser power density continuously irradiated for 20 s, the back temperature is only 250 °C. Even continuously irradiated for 60 s under this power, no obvious damage appears on the coating. Only the phenomenon of micro melting in the irradiation center was observed under scanning electron microscope. The coating shows excellent anti-laser irradiation ability.