Laser surface hardening technologies have been used to improve characteristics of wear and to enhance the fatigue resistance for automotive parts. The objective of this research work is to investigate the influence of the process parameters, such as power of laser and defocused spot position, on the characteristics of laser heat treatment for the case of SM45C medium carbon steel. CW Nd:YAG laser is selected as the heat source. The optical lens with the elliptical profile is designed to obtain a wide heat treatment area with a uniform hardness. From the results of the experiments, it has been shown that the maximum hardness is approximatly 780 Hv when the power and the travel speed of laser are 1,095 W and 0.6 m/min, respectively. In addition, the hardening width using the elliptical lens was three time larger than that using the defocusing of laser beam.