Editorial: Advances and applications of laser-material interaction

Editorial on the Research Topic Advances and applications of laser-material interactionLasers, with their excellent directionality, high energy, and monochromatism, enable manipulation of light in ways never previously imagined.Yet more than 60 years after the first demonstration of lasers, our understanding of laser-based light-material interactions is still largely underexplored.Laser-material interactions entail complex physical processes, which are closely related to the types of laser systems (including beam generators and modulators), the characteristics of laser output, the qualities of interacting materials, and the local environment.In addition to direct light-matter interactions, secondary effects of laser-material interactions include nonlinear ionization, phase change processes, plasma effects, shock wave effects, and radiation effects.Moreover, laser effects have the potential to lead to various types of applications, e.g., cold processing dominated by ultrashort pulses, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, super hard and ultra-brittle material manufacturing, mid infrared laser and biological applications, photodynamic therapy, and laser environmental monitoring and disinfection.Laser-material interactions can be used to enhance or alter materials directly (ablation, drilling, annealing, matter deposition, texturing, micromachining, etching, cladding, biological diagnostics and therapeutical applications), or to enable sophisticated sensing applications related to material property changes that preserve materials but see deep within them, such as nonlinear optical imaging, laser ultrasonics/photoacoustic imaging, laser spectroscopy and more.Advances on multiple fronts are possible, but the field is so young that it is defined more by the creative range of potential problems it can solve than the fine-tuning of results to overcome problems in previously identified applications.We hope you enjoy the breadth of creative applications collected in this Research Topic.The articles describe laser-material interactions in many different environments, utilizing a range of wavelengths, and, most importantly, for a wide range of functional applications.