Optical and thermal insulation properties of silica aerogel under a 7 kW·cm-2 power laser irradiation

Abstract

Laser technology has made great progress over the past decades. However, corresponding defense systems have lagged slightly behind. Therefore, there is significant room for research with respect to the principles and bases of existing laser protective materials. In this paper, a kind of silica aerogel material is prepared with the acid-base sol-gel process. Considering the influence of thermal conductivity and the porosity of the aerogel materials on the laser irradiation results, the best laser resistance times of the materials were obtained. The concept of the maximum energy transfer radius is proposed to build a preliminary laser irradiation model for porous materials. It indicates that under the irradiation of a continuous wave laser with a power of 7 kW·cm−2, the silica aerogel materials with the thickness of 3, 6, and 9 mm can withstand the laser for maximum times of 26, 61, and 100 s, respectively. After 7 s of irradiation, the surface temperature of 3 mm from the laser incident point is 226.9 °C. Aerogels, especially silica aerogels, should be considered as future laser protection materials. The extremely low thermal conductivity and the strong scattered ability for laser of these materials will provide a good defensive effect against large-energy laser weapons.