Av. Ivlev et al., MODELING OF BREAKDOWN OF A GAS BY ELECTRONS OF THE BOUNDARY-LAYER DURING IRRADIATION OF METAL TARGETS BY PICOSECOND LASER-PULSES, Technical physics, 43(8), 1998, pp. 921-925
Results are presented from a numerical simulation of the breakdown of
a dense inert gas by boundary-layer electrons upon irradiation of a me
tal target by high-power picosecond laser pulses. It is shown that tak
ing the electric field of the boundary layer into account leads to a s
ubstantial increase in the concentration of the seed electrons near th
e target surface, which accelerates the ionization process. The depend
ence of the breakdown time on the electric field intensity of the inci
dent wave and the concentration of the gas atoms is derived. (C) 1998
American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7842(98)00808-3].