Explosive vaporization induced by high-power CO2-laser target interactions

An electron-beam-preionized CO2 laser interacted with different target materials; the energy of the pulses was about 30 J, while the pulse halfwidths of the long-tail pulses were 4 to 6 microsec. Optical measurements yielded information on the threshold values for the formation and expansion of the plasmas and for the ejection of material. Gasdynamic equations in one-dimensional approximation are used to determine specific internal energy and pressure in the case of laser detonation.