Surface composites: Novel method to fabricate adherent interfaces

To integrate irreconcilable material properties into a single component, novel engineered materials termed `surface composites' were developed. In these engineered materials, the second phase is spatially distributed in the near surface region, whereas the phase composition is linearly graded as a function of distance from the surface. Surface composites are different from existing engineered materials such as bulk, composites and functionally graded materials (FGM). Unlike in bulk composites, the surface phase in surface composites is present only in the near surface region. To fabricate surface composites, the initial surface of the bulk material is transformed using a novel multiple pulse irradiation technique into truncated conelike structures.