| TEA-CO(2) Laser Generation of Ultrasound in Non-Metals. (1998) | |||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||
| Broadband ultrasonic pulses in polymers have been produced by an industrial TEA-COsub2 laser, operating at a wavelength of 10.6 microns. The generation mechanism falls into three categories. First, at low power densities < or = 10 to the 7th power W/sq cm a thermoelastic regime predominates. Second, as the power density is increased in the range (1-5) x 10 to the 7th power W/sq cm ablation of the material surface plays an increasingly important role in the acoustic generation. And third, at greater power densities, plasma breakdown just above the material surface serves as the means of generation. This study presents the acoustic sources for these types of generation mechanism and presents theoretically calculated acoustic waveforms to match those recorded experimentally. | |||||||||
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