Copper alloys are widely used due to their excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. However, their poor wear resistance and high-temperature oxidation resistance limit their applications and service life. In this study, a laser-induced oxidation (LIO) pretreatment combined with PEO (LIO-PEO) was employed to fabricate a dense in-situ ceramic coating on a non-valve CuCrZr alloy substrate. High-speed imaging, confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to investigate the coating formation and characteristics. LIO generated a uniform Cu 2O layer, reducing breakdown voltage and promoting soft-spark discharges. The LIO-PEO coating showed fivefold higher wear resistance than the substrate and the conventional PEO treatment. After 20 h of oxidation at 600 °C, mass losses were 3.2 % (substrate), 4.2 % (PEO), and 2.4 % (LIO-PEO) respectively, confirming superior oxidation resistance for the LIO-PEO sample. The proposed mechanism suggests that LIO creates an oxide layer on valve metal, facilitates soft spark initiation and enables effective substrate incorporation into the ceramic coating.