This paper investigates the temporal and spatial profiles of laser beams as control parameters for the preparation of single track multi layer 316L stainless steel specimens using laser based directed energy deposition. The effects of parameters on the microhardness and microstructure characteristics of the specimens were analyzed. The orthogonal experiments results show that key evaluation indicators, including grain equivalent diameter, aspect ratio of columnar grains, and quantitative ratio of columnar to equiaxed grains, initially decrease sharply and then exhibit slight increases with rising frequency and duty cycle of pulsed wave lasers. Comparing with the continuous beam, the grain equivalent diameter, aspect of columnar grains, quantify ratio of columnar/equiaxed grain under the medium frequency (40/60Hz) and medium duty cycle (0.6/0.8) are decreased by 19.4%, 3.4%,13.3%, respectively. As for the spatial profile, compared with the Gaussian profile beam, the grain equivalent diameter under the super Gaussian beam decreased by 0.14, while the aspect of columnar grains, quantify ratio of columnar/equiaxed grain increase by 0.06 and 0.45, respectively. The effect degree of each factor on equivalent diameter, aspect of columnar grains, quantify ratio of columnar/equiaxed grain and microhardness are as follows: duty cycle > frequency >spatial profile index, frequency > duty cycle >spatial profile index, frequency > spatial profile index > duty cycle, spatial profile index > frequency > duty cycle.