It was noted that the interaction of an homogeneous laser beam with a metal surface which contained irregular grains, grain boundaries, dislocations, dislocation pile-ups, inclusions, etc., caused inhomogeneous melting. Of all of the possible causes of inhomogeneous surface melting, only 2 were considered here. One cause was dislocations, and the premature melting that was associated with stress-intensity contours (including rotation cells on dislocation pile-ups). The other was the facet melting of polycrystalline surfaces. The first cause was associated with laser pulses at all time scales. The second cause was associated with laser pulses that were shorter than 10ns.

S.Lugomer: Vacuum, 1995, 46[12], 1423-31