This article is cited in 4 papers

Laser plasma and laser applications

Surface laser plasma accompanying the heating and evaporation of microdefects

V. S. Vorob'ev, S. V. Maksimenko


Abstract: An investigation is made of the mechanism whereby a surface laser plasma is formed when short ( ~ 1 μs) laser pulses having a rise time of the order of tens of nanoseconds interact with a target. A model is suggested for breakdown on the surface of a metal in a molecular gas atmosphere due to the heating and evaporation of thermally insulated surface microdefects which, under certain conditions, are the most probable centers of plasma formation and lead to a significant lowering of the threshold intensity compared with breakdown in the absence of a surface. It is shown that two plasma formation regimes are possible, with E = const and with q = const (where E is the surface energy density of the laser pulse and q is its intensity). A comparison is made with an experiment in which such regimes were observed.

UDC: 621.373.826:533.9

PACS: 52.50.Jm, 52.38.-r, 52.25.-b, 79.70.+q

Received: 21.04.1988

 English version: Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics, 1988, 18:12, 1595–1601

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