Abstract
The production of a plasma by a pulsed laser beam in solids, liquids or gas is often associated with the generation of a strong shock wave, which can be studied and interpreted in the framework of the theory of strong explosion. In this review, we will briefly present a theoretical interpretation of the physical mechanisms of laser-generated shock waves. After that, we will discuss how the study of the dynamics of the laser-induced shock wave can be used for obtaining useful information about the laser–target interaction (for example, the energy delivered by the laser on the target material) or on the physical properties of the target itself (hardness). Finally, we will focus the discussion on how the laser-induced shock wave can be exploited in analytical applications of Laser-Induced Plasmas as, for example, in Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy experiments.
Highlights
The sudden release of energy delivered by a pulsed laser beam on a material may produce a small explosion, which is associated, together with other effects, with a violent displacement of the surrounding material and the production of a shock wave.The time evolution of a laser-induced shock wave and its geometry are dominated by the energy of the laser and the shape of the plasma generated
Other important computational and experimental studies on laser-induced shock waves shock waves were performed by Harilal and coworkers [12,13,14], in the framework of extensive and articulated research devoted to the study of the expansion of the laser plume in different ambient gases and experimental configurations [15,16,17,18,19,20]
After more than 30 years the idea of using the acoustic wave intensity as a measure of the ablated mass was revived by Murdoch et al [41] and Chide et al [42], with the aim of improving the performances of the SuperCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument which is supposed to be delivered to Mars in 2020 [43]
Summary
The sudden release of energy delivered by a pulsed laser beam on a material (solid, liquid or gaseous) may produce a small (but strong) explosion, which is associated, together with other effects (ablation of material, plasma formation and excitation), with a violent displacement of the surrounding material and the production of a shock wave. The description of the shock wave propagation is often referred to the Taylor point strong explosion theory. The critical point of the discussion is the evaluation of the K constant in Equation (1), which is function of the adiabatic coefficient γ of the gas in which the shock wave propagates. ShockConsidering wave, one can describe quite precisely evolution of a laser-induced spherical the parameter E0 in Equation (1) as athe kind of effective energy carried out by the shock shock wave in different gases, as reported by. Other important computational and experimental studies on laser-induced shock waves shock waves were performed by Harilal and coworkers [12,13,14], in the framework of extensive and articulated research devoted to the study of the expansion of the laser plume in different ambient gases and experimental configurations [15,16,17,18,19,20]. Hermann et al [21] studied the evolution of the pressure in a steel plasma, acquiring its emission spectrum and successfully comparing the experimental data with the results of computer simulations
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