An overview is given on the state of art of the laser based surface processing of engineering materials. In major engineering application surface of the material plays a major role. since the surface has the direct contact with the environment as well as the load. The different parameters such as hardness, toughness, wear resistance etc on the surface has to be enhanced based on the application, hence there is a need to go for surface processing. Conventional surface processing has its own limitations toward recently developed materials and other functional aspects. These aspects can be overcome by laser based surface processing. In this paper an attempt has been made to investigate the principal and effect of laser interaction on materials such as heating, surface melting, vaporization, plasma formation , ablation etc .The different types of laser based surface processing of engineering materials based on their properties, Processing parameters and functional aspects which is considered for different application has been discussed.

Key words: Surface Engineering, Laser Based Surface Processing, Engineering Materials