Interaction of two counterpropagating laser induced plasmas and shock waves in air

Abstract

The interaction of two counterpropagating plasmas and shockwaves due to a 7 ns laser induced breakdown (LIB) of ambient atmospheric air was studied using the 2D emission and shadowgraphic imaging technique. The effect of separation distance (d) between the two plasma sources and their energy ratio on plasma and shockwave evolution is presented. These low density and low temperature plasma sources form a stagnation layer in the interaction zone that showed an interesting dependence on the input energy of the sources. The interaction dynamics of the two counterpropagating plasma plumes and the shock waves in ambient air are compared with that of the respective single plasma source to explicitly bring out the energy exchange during the interaction. The evolution of a plasma jetlet, studied by 2D emission images and shadowgraphic imaging, has shown very good correlation giving valuable insight into the role of a plasma induced shockwave on the expanding plasma. The propagation of the shock front of the high energy source through the plasma of a low energy source is observed to predominantly lead to the formation of a jetlet and its evolution.