利用光束变换技术得到不同光斑形状和不同强度分布的光束，可满足表面硬化所需要的硬化层均匀性等要求。激光硬化在材料表面产生的实际效果与光强分布密切相关，利用特定光强分布的光束进行激光硬化可以得到所需要的温度场及组织分布，直接影响材料表面硬化的效果。对高斯光束圆光束、平顶矩形光束、曲边矩形光束、点阵光斑等不同强度分布的激光表面硬化(LSH)技术进行了介绍。硬化层特定的硬度分布及组织结构等硬化效果是特定光强分布激光束与材料相互作用的结果，要获得所需硬化效果，则需要利用反求方法设计与硬化效果相对应的特定光强分布的光斑。给出了特定光强分布的激光表面硬化技术的发展趋势。

Using transformation technology, laser beams with different shape and spatial intensity distribution are gained. Therefore, some required hardened results such as homogeneous hardened layers could be obtained. The quality of laser surface hardening(LSH) is depended strongly on the intensity distribution. Required surface temperature field and hardened layer are formed by special beam intensity of laser hardening. Laser beams applied in surface hardening include Gaussian beam, flat-topped rectangular beam, curved rectangular beam and array spot beam. Inverse method is required to design the intensity distribution profile corresponding to the hardened quality. The trend of LSH with determined intensity distribution is put forward.