DYNAMICS OF CRATER GROWTH AND OF FORMATIO N OF ELASTIC-WAVES ON INTERACTION OF A MILLISECOND LASER-PULSE WITH A SURFACE OF A TRANSPARENT INSULATOR

A study was made of the dynamics of crater growth when a millisecond l ight pulse with a complex temporal profile interacted with the surface of a transparent insulator. The characteristics of elastic waves gene rated in the course of this interaction were also studied. The effecti ve growth of a crater was found to last no more than 100 mus and it co nsisted of two stages. In the first stage the area of the damage regio n increased while its depth remained practically constant, whereas in the second stage the crater growth was three-dimensional. Under these conditions the generation of acoustic vibrations could be described sa tisfactorily by a model of a loaded region emitting a wave into an ela stic medium.