Rolling contact fatigue and damage characteristic of AISI 9310 steel with pre-laser shock peening treatment

•1Laser shock peening (LSP) induced a gradient layer with compressive residual stress and work hardening.•2LSP induced smaller Kernel Average Misorientation and improved plastic deformation resistance.•LSP brought a transforming trend from ductile fracture to brittle fracture for AISI 9310 steel.•Rolling contact fatigue life of AISI 9310 steel after LSP was significantly improved, from 5.37 × 105 cycles to 9.04 × 105 cycles.