Laser quenching, nitriding, nitriding-laser quenching compound treatment and laser quenching-nitriding compound treatment on 38CrMoAlA steels are carried out, and theirs depth of hardening layers and their surface hardness are investigated. The experimental results show that the laser quenching -nitriding compound treatment may raise surface hardness by 100Hv than by using nitriding only and the depth of hardening layers is not increased; that the laser quenching may raise the depth of hardening layers of previous nitriding in the nitriding-laser quenching compound treatment and the surface hardness drops; the depth of hardening layers and the surface hardness in the nitriding-laser quenching compound treatment are shallower and higher than the laser quenching, respectively.