This paper discusses experiments in which 2 to 200-pm-thick aluminum foils were irradiated with Nd/YAG laser pulses at 3-4 GW/cm2 for 10 nsec. An optically recording velocity interferometer system (ORVIS) was used to record the resulting particle-velocity histories with nanosecond resolution. Results show that foils suspended in air are accelerated, over a period about three times the length of the laser pulse, to a final velocity inversely proportional to foil thickness. A 12-pm-thick foil attains a peak velocity of 0.2 km/sec. Foils confined by water undergo most of their acceleration during the laser pulse and attain surface velocities three times greater than do air-suspended foils of the same thickness.

Date Published: 9 January 1984
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 0427, High Speed Photography, Videography, and Photonics I, (9 January 1984); doi: 10.1117/12.936281

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0427:
High Speed Photography, Videography, and Photonics I
Dennis L. Paisley, Editor(s)