Effects of Surface Inclination on Laser Texturing and Wettability of Copper

Laser Surface Texturing (LST) is a versatile technique for surface functionalization, enabling the introduction of properties not inherent to the base material through the creation of sub-micron features with high precision. Despite its growing prominence in imparting functional properties like surface wettability, challenges persist in applying LST to nonplanar surfaces due to process disturbances like surface inclination. This work addresses the need to understand how surface inclination impacts the wetting behavior of laser textured copper surfaces. To understand this we investigate the effects of laser processing parameters on the wettability of inclined copper surfaces. By employing surface characterization and wettability analyses, we observed that steeper inclination lead to inconsistent surface textures and reduced hydrophobicity compared to flat surfaces.