Ablation pressure of the shock wave generated by laser interaction with solid targets

Abstract:

The time evolution process of the plasma generated by laser pulse interaction with solid target in air is observed by optical shadowgraph imaging technique. The ablation pressure of the shock wave generated with the plasma is calculated analytically.It is found that plasma expansion in perpendicular and lateral directions are both proportional to t2/5 with t as delay time, and the ablation pressure reaches 108 Pa.