Laser-induced gas breakdown in the presence of preionization
- 1 March 1973
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 22 (5), 245-247
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1654626
Abstract
Experiments have been carried out to study the ionization buildup and gas breakdown processes in the focal volume of an intense 10. 6‐μ laser pulse in atmospheric‐pressure helium preionized to various levels of electron density. With no preionization the laser flux required for breakdown was in agreement with results obtained by previous authors, and showed the same dependence on the focal volume size. However, with a high initial electron density, the threshold was much lower and showed no volume dependence. The results indicate that with preionization the breakdown threshold is controlled by cascade ionization processes, while with no preionization it is dominated by other effects such as small impurity particles in the gas, and that these other effects may be responsible for the diameter dependence of the breakdown threshold.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Gas-Breakdown Dependence on Beam Size and Pulse Duration with 10.6-μ Wavelength RadiationApplied Physics Letters, 1971
- Collisional-Radiative Recombination of Ions and Electrons in High-Pressure Plasmas in Which the Electron Temperature Exceeds the Gas TemperaturePhysical Review B, 1969