The Interaction of Suspended Atmospheric Particles with Laser Radiation.

Abstract

SUSPENDED PARTICLES. Initial breakdown in either the vaporized particle or in the shock-heated adjacent gas may result in a laser-supported detonation or in a subsonic ionization wave. The nonlinear, nonequilibrium kinetic equations describing the energy distribution of free electrons, the vibrational excitation of molecules, the dominant electronic excitation, attachment, and ionization reactions and their inverses, electron heating by the laser, and electron diffusion, are solved numerically. The dominant eigenvalue of the Jacobian of these equations is investigated as a criterion for breakdown. Calculations for vaporized silica and air at temperatures from 300K to 6000K under irradiation by a CO2 laser show expected lowering of breakdown threshold for preheated material. Heating of particle vapor and subsequent formation of a shock wave are calculated with a Lagrangian gasdynamic method. Preliminary theoretical predictions for the effects of particles on lowering of the air breakdown threshold are then obtained. (Abstract Modified Abstract)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1972
Accession Number
AD0757517

Entities

People

  • A. A. Boni
  • J. R. Triplett

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Carbon Dioxide Lasers
  • Corpuscular Radiation
  • Eigenvalues
  • Electrons
  • Equations
  • Excitation
  • Free Electrons
  • Ionization
  • Ionizing Radiation
  • Lasers
  • Materials
  • Nuclear Radiation
  • Particles
  • Radiation
  • Shock
  • Shock Waves

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers
  • Microelectronics