Effect of focusing plane on laser blow-off shock waves from confined aluminum and copper foils

Abstract

We present results on the dynamics of laser-induced blow-off shockwave generation from the rear side of 20 µm thick aluminum and copper foil confined with a glass (BK7) substrate. These foils are irradiated by 10 ns, 532 nm laser pulses of energy 25–200 mJ corresponding to the intensity range 0.2–10 GW cm−2. The plasma temperature at the glass-foil interface is observed to play an important role in the coupling of laser energy to the foil. From our experiments and 1D hydrodynamic simulations, we confirm that moving the glass-foil interface away from the focal plane led to (a) enhanced absorption of the laser beam by the foil resulting in ∼30% higher blow-off shock velocities (b) significant changes in the material ejection in terms of increased blow-off mass of the foil (c) lower plasma density and temperatures. The material ejection as well as blow-off shock velocity is higher for Al compared to Cu. The simulated shock evolution in ambient air shows a reasonably good agreement with the experimental results.