THE INFLUENCE OF THE ELECTRON-STRUCTURE OF ATOMS SHELLS ON CHARACTERISTICS OF OPTICAL-BREAKDOWN IN METAL VAPOR

By making use of the collision-radiative model that describes the phen omenon of optical breakdown in a metal vapour, the influence of the el ectron structure of atoms shells on the threshold intensity and breakd own period is analyzed. Two metals to be examined, aluminium and coppe r, are close in their thermo-physical properties but differ in the con figuration of the electron shells of their atoms. General characterist ics of optical breakdown, the influence of excitation energies of the neutral atom electron shells, as well as the ionisation potential, and the influence of higher excited states on threshold intensity and bre akdown period are analyzed.