Origin of the damage ring pattern in fused silica induced by multiple longitudinal modes laser pulses

Abstract

Ring patterns surrounding laser damage sites at the exit surface of fused silica are systematically observed when initiated by multiple longitudinal modes nanosecond laser pulses at 1064 nm. The appearance chronology of rings is found to be closely related to the temporal shape of the laser pulses. This supports that the damage morphology originates from the coupling of a laser-supported detonation wave propagating in air with an ablation mechanism in silica. In our experiments, the propagation speed of the detonation wave reaches about 20 km/s and scales as the cube root of the laser intensity, in good agreement with theory.