In this study, controllable fabrication of nickel-doped diamond-like carbon (Ni-DLC) films through laser-assisted electrochemical deposition under low-voltage conditions (5 V) is achieved. After substrate polishing, picosecond laser irradiation is applied during electrodeposition to precisely control the laser energy and defocus distance during film preparation, with subsequent analysis of surface morphology, composition, and properties in correlation with growth mechanisms. Compared with conventional DLC electrodeposition, the laser-assisted technique significantly improves film quality by maintaining the deposition zone temperature at ~52 ℃, with laser-induced micro-stirring effectively reducing cathode bubble adhesion and suppressing hydrogen evolution. Without laser assistance, the films exhibit poor adhesion, porous structure, and thickness nonuniformity, while increasing the laser energy progressively enhances densification, achieving 3.5 μm thickness uniformity. Optimal performance at 8.5 μJ laser energy demonstrates an improved deposition rate compared with conventional methods, a minimum corrosion current density (1.116 × 10⁻⁶ A · mm⁻²), and a stable friction coefficient (0.143), establishing a novel laser-assisted approach for controllable DLC electrodeposition.

Laser micromachining technology is widely used in various industrial fields because of its high machining accuracy, high machining flexibility, and low machining cost. However, the existence of thermal effects and recast layers on the machining surface has limited the further development of this technology. To improve the machining quality, laser-liquid composite micromachining technologies flourish, which has achieved brilliant results in recent years. Laser-liquid composite micromachining technology achieves improvement in surface quality and machining efficiency through the effects of cooling, flushing, dissolution and so on. This paper reviews the current research status of laser-liquid micromachining, mainly including the water guided laser machining technology, underwater laser ablation technology, water jet assisted laser machining technology, and laser-electrochemical composite machining. The mechanism of composite machining and the material removal process under the coupling of multiple energy fields are discussed. The existing problems and future development trends in various composite machining technologies are summarized.