Abstract

The interactions of vaporizing aerosols with a high energy laser beam are analyzed in the diffusive vaporization regime. This is the regime in which diffusive mass transport and conductive energy transport dominate the aerosol–beam interactions. A numerical analysis of the coupled aerosol–beam equations allows us to compute the energy conversion of the incident laser pulse. The plots showing the functional form of the pulse shape and the fractional energy conversion are given to illustrate the interactions for a wide range of pulse energies. A new term describing the droplet radius shrinking in time, similar in form to that recently analyzed by Davies and Brock, is included.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

Laser droplet heating: fast and slow heating regimes

Bae-Sig Park and Robert L. Armstrong
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Effect of thermal blooming on pulse propagation through vaporizing aerosols

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