ULTIMATE LASER INTENSITIES IN TRANSPARENT SOLIDS

Regularities and mechanisms of laser-induced damage as a major limitin g factor for maximum intensity of laser radiation in transparent solid s are considered. An analysis of up-to-date status of laser damage pro blems is given and recent new results of investigations in this field regarding, in particular, a pulse-width dependence of a damage thresho ld in a region of ultrashort laser pulses are presented. Unsolved topi cal problems are discussed.