High energy, nanosecond-pulsed laser-material interactions: effects and applications

Please contact Rachel Wise at [email protected] for connection information.

In this presentation I will discuss the effects of nanosecond-pulsed laser ablation of solid materials when the laser pulse energy exceeds the breakdown threshold of the material by at least an order of magnitude. This regime differs significantly from conventional laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), where much lower pulse energies are typically used. The resulting laser-induced plasma chemistry and subsequent combustion reactions form the basis for the laser-induced air shock from energetic materials (LASEM) technique developed at ARL for the lab-scale characterization of novel energetic materials.