Previous work on laser surface melting of austenitic stainless-steels for the improvement of localised corrosion resistance has been performed using CO2 lasers with a circular beam profile, generating melt tracks of width 1-5 mm. In large area applications, overlapping of individual tracks is often required. This results in in-homogeneity of microstructure at the overlapped regions that may adversely influence corrosion properties. This work investigates the microstructure and corrosion characteristics of laser-melted single tracks of AISI 304L stainless-steel using a 3 kW Nd:YAG laser with a 13 mm wide line beam profile. The micro structures, as a function of laser operating conditions, were characterised by means of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The corresponding pitting corrosion resistances were evaluated using potentiodynamic polarisation in deaerated 3.5% NaCl solution at 25 degreesC. The results showed that the microstructure and solidification mode were dependent on the cooling rate. Formation of delta-ferrite, dissolution of inclusions and promotion of preferred orientation of gamma-austenite along the [2 0 0] direction were found in the melted zone, leading to enhanced pitting potentials, with a shift up to +315 mV Compared with the literature, the 304L SS treated by the line beam profile produced a more uniform microstructure and consistent corrosion behaviour, with greater improvement of the pitting potential. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.