A comprehensive study on microstructure and tensile behaviour of a selectively laser melted stainless steel.

316L stainless steel samples have been prepared by selective laser melting (SLM) using a pulsed laser mode and different laser powers and scanning patterns. The as-fabricated samples were found to be dominated by clusters of nano-sized γ needles or cells. TEM imaging shows that these needles contain a high population of dislocations while TEM-EDX analysis reveals high chemical homogeneity throughout the as-fabricated samples as evidenced by the fact that there is even no micro-/nano-segregation at interfaces between neighbouring γ needles.