Ceramics or ceramic composites present many advantages ( hardness, chemical resistance, low density, etc.) which induce some more and more important applications particularly from the industrial point of view. The evolution of technology can also be beneficial to enlarge their global application areas. This is particularly the aim of this work which consists in applying a laser beam on the ceramic in order to clean its surface. A Nd: YAG laser has been used to study the basic mechanism roughening the surface of silicon carbide composite (ceramic matrix composite (CMC)). Investigations on different surfaces ( two chemical compositions) show a strong influence of the nature of the material on the development of a characteristic conic structure. Microscopic studies (SEM) and elementary analyses (EDS and RMS) demonstrated the formation of a regular cone-like structure with a kinetic and a chemical modi. cation specific to each material. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.