Advanced materials are becoming increasingly important as substitutes for traditional materials and as facilitators for new and unique products. They have had a considerable impact on the development of a wide range of strategic technologies. Structural ceramics, biomaterials, composites and intermetallics fall under this category of advanced materials. There may be several additional materials in this category, but this book will only focus on these four types of materials.

Even though some of these materials can be machined by conventional methods, material processing with lasers is an expanding field which is drawing attention of everyone in the industry as well as academics. As laser machining offers several advantages such as capabilities for machining the materials that are difficult to machine otherwise and flexibility and automation, the scope for applications of these advanced materials is further extended. Laser Machining of Advanced Materials focuses on the fundamental principles and physical phenomena involved in the laser machining of the above mentioned advanced materials.

The book begins with an overview of the various conventional and non-conventional techniques employed in machining followed by a fundamental understanding of the material removal mechanisms involved in laser machining. It then covers the specific topic of laser machining of advanced materials. Understanding of the physics behind laser machining of advanced materials and associated thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer and microstructure evolution is provided. This book also covers the modeling efforts made in this field which enables a better and efficient control of the process for a desired application.

The principal audience for this book is undergraduate and graduate students with majors in a variety of disciplines, computational modelers, experimentalists, microscopists and research scientists/associates in national and private research labs and universities worldwide conducting research on laser material interaction and people directly working in laser related industries.

Professor Narendra B. Dahotre is currently Chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the University of North Texas and formerly UT-ORNL joint faculty at the University of Tennessee. He is acknowledged for his pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding and engineering of laser-materials interactions along with the implementation of high power lasers in materials processing and surface engineering. He is internationally known for his work on fundamentals and applications of laser surface engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. His work over 25 years on laser materials-interactions has been compiled in four books, 15 U.S. Patents, 12 proceedings and over 200 papers. He has been elected to the 2010 Class of SME Fellows, 2009 Class of AAAS Fellows, 2008 Class of ASME Fellows, 2008 Class of IIM Fellows and 2004 Class of ASM Fellows. He is the recipient of the 2006 R&D 100 Award, 2006 University of Tennessee Chancellor's Research and Creativity Achievement Award, 2006 University of Tennessee College of Engineering Research Fellow Award. He has a B.S. degree from the University of Poona, India and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University, USA.

Dr. Anoop Samant completed his Bachelor of Engineering Degree (B.E) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pune, India in 2001. He then worked for Bajaj Auto Limited, Akurdi, India for a brief period of six months after which he went abroad to the United States of America for higher education. He obtained his Masters Degree (M.S) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT in 2004. Anoop completed his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN in 2009 under the guidance of Dr. Narendra Dahotre. His dissertation topic was laser machining of structural ceramics. In this period, he was an author and co-author of 25+ publications in the most prestigious international refereed journals. He also presented his work at high profile international conferences, including The Metals, Minerals and Materials Society (TMS) and Materials Science and Technology (MS&T). He is currently with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR where he continues his research work in the field of lasers. Dr. Samant has also reviewed several technical papers for major international journals.