Effects of High-Power Laser Radiation describes the interactions between high-power laser beams and matter. This book is divided into eight chapters that particularly focus on interactions such as heating, melting, vaporization, and plasma production. The opening chapters examine the laser properties, types, measurement techniques, and safety aspects. The succeeding chapters deal with a variety of physical phenomena and mechanisms of laser-induced particle emission, as well as the initiation and development of gas breakdown phenomena. Other chapters explore the effects and damage of various interactions in transparent materials and on biological systems. The final chapter looks into the practical applications of the various laser effects to diverse technological fields. This book will prove useful to scientists interested in the physical phenomena of laser effects and engineers interested in practical applications of laser effects.

Unique properties of laser radiation including its monochromatic properties, polarization, high spectral intensity, coherence, narrow beam divergence, the possibility of controlling the pulse duration and radiation spectrum and, finally, the fact that extremely high power and energy create very favorable conditions for the extensive application of lasers to communi cation systems, systems for the lidar sensing and ultra-high-precision ranging, navigation, remote monitoring of the environment, and many other systems operating in the atmosphere. The operative efficiency of the above systems depends significantly on the state of the atmosphere and the corresponding behavior of laser radia tion propagating through it. This circumstance has stimulated the studies of the above regularities during the passt 10-15 years. For the investiga tions to be carried out the scientists were forced to develop new theories and methods for studying the problem experimentally. Moreover, during such investigations some previously unknown phenomena were observed, among them the nonlinear effects accompanying high-power laser radiation propagating through the atmosphere are of paramount importance. Among the nonlinear effects caused by high-power laser radiation inter action with the atmosphere, the effects accompanying the propagation of high-power radiation through the atmospheric aerosols are of particular interest. Aerosols always occur in the atmosphere. It should be noted that the microphysical and optical characteristics of atmospheric aerosols vary widely, this fact causes a great variety in the features of their inter action with radiation.

This book offers a tutorial on the response of materials to lasers, with an emphasis on simple, intuitive models with analytical and mathematical solutions, using techniques such as Laplace Transformation to solve most complex heat conduction equations. It examines the relationship between existing thermal parameters of simple metals and looks at the characteristics of materials and their properties in order to investigate and perform theoretical analysis from a heat conduction perspective mathematically. Topics discussed include optical reflectivity of metals at infrared (IR) wavelengths, laser-induced heat flow in materials, the effects of melting and vaporization, the impulse generated in materials by pulsed radiation, and the influence of the absorption in the blow-off region in irradiated material. Written for engineers, scientists, and graduate-level engineering and physics students, Thermal Effects of High Power Laser Energy on Materials provides an in-depth look at high energy laser technology and its potential industrial and commercial applications in such areas as precision cutting, LIDAR and LADAR, and communications. The knowledge gained from this allows you to apply spaced-based relay mirror in order to compensate laser beam divergence back to its original coherency by preventing further thermal blooming that takes place during laser beam propagation through the atmosphere. Examines the state-of-the-art in currently available high energy laser technologies; Includes computer codes that deal with the response of materials to laser radiation; Provides detailed mathematical solutions of thermal response to laser radiation.

When a laser beam of sufficiently high intensity interacts with a weakly ionized gas, the nonuniform deposition of laser energy into the electron gas causes heating of the electrons, ions, and neutral gas. Eventually, the neutral gas will 'break-down' and become more highly ionized. This ionization can seriously limit the amount of laser energy that can damage a target. A multifluid model has been devised to describe the many physical processes that occur when the high power laser wave interacts with the partially ionized gas. A flexible computer program has been developed to numerically integrate the multifluid plasma transport equations coupled with Maxwell's equations. The computer program is sufficiently general so as to be capable of describing target vaporization, with diffusion and ionization of target material into an ambient gas. In this report, only the modification of an ambient gas by the laser radiation is studied.

The field of high-power laser-plasma interaction has grown in the last few decades, with applications ranging from laser-driven fusion and laser acceleration of charged particles to laser ablation of materials. This comprehensive text covers fundamental concepts including electromagnetics and electrostatic waves, parameter instabilities, laser driven fusion,charged particle acceleration and gamma rays. Two important techniques of laser proton interactions including target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) are discussed in detail, along with their applications in the field of medicine. An analytical framework is developed for laser beat-wave and wakefield excitation of plasma waves and subsequent acceleration of electrons. The book covers parametric oscillator model and studies the coupling of laser light with collective modes.