Flow-concentration effects in optical breakdown of a gas in an intense annular beam from a CO2 laser
Abstract
Results are reported for experiments which demonstrate motion of the front of a concentrated breakdown-plasma flow in a hollow laser spark (a hollow cone) following the termination of a hollow CO2 laser pulse with energy of 2-3 kJ and a FWHM pulse length of 150 nsec. The motion and evolution of the breakdown front observed to arise immediately after breakdown in argon are described. The results obtained show that energy can be concentrated at the cone axis in gases initiated by a hollow beam from a CO2 laser.
- Publication:
-
Pisma v Zhurnal Tekhnischeskoi Fiziki
- Pub Date:
- August 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978PZhTF...4..966A
- Keywords:
-
- Carbon Dioxide Lasers;
- Gas Ionization;
- Laser Plasmas;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Flow;
- Photoionization;
- Core Flow;
- Density Distribution;
- Plasma Density;
- Pulsed Lasers;
- Shock Fronts;
- Streak Photography;
- Plasma Physics