Abstract

Thermal blooming of a pulsed, focused Gaussian laser beam in a gas is studied for a specific model of gaseous heating. Analytic results in the limit of times both long and short compared with the sound transit time across any part of the beam are presented as irradiance profiles at any range as a function of time. Experiments that can be done with present laser technology to test the theoretical predictions are suggested.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Thermal Blooming of Laser Beams in Fluids

John N. Hayes
Appl. Opt. 11(2) 455-461 (1972)

Transient Thermal Blooming of Long Laser Pulses

Rudolf G. Buser and Robert S. Rohde
Appl. Opt. 14(1) 50-55 (1975)

Turbulence Effects on Thermal Blooming

Frederick G. Gebhardt, David C. Smith, Rudolph G. Buser, and Robert S. Rohde
Appl. Opt. 12(8) 1794-1805 (1973)

Thermal blooming of a rapidly moving laser beam

James Wallace and Joseph Pasciak
Appl. Opt. 15(1) 218-222 (1976)

Thermal Blooming of Rapidly Slued Laser Beams

John N. Hayes
Appl. Opt. 13(9) 2072-2074 (1974)