Laser hardening experiments are performed by Nd:YAG laser on the surface of 45 steel with TiO2/C compound powder prepared by sol-gel to get TiC enhanced coating. The influence of laser parameters and ratio of the powder materials on phases of hardened coating are investigated to explore the optimum technics. The phases, microstructures and elemental analysis are tested by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), respectively. The results show that the optimum processing parameters should be laser current of 250 A, pulse frequency of 18 Hz, pulse width of 2.5 ms, laser velocity of 50 mm/min, and the mole ratio of TiO2 and C should be 15. Under the above condition, TiC reinforcing phase can be in-situ synthesized on the surface of 45# steel and the hardened coating with TiC particles uniformly distributed can be obtained.