Investigation of the energy balance components for a plane target irradiated with a picosecond laser pulse

The scattering and absorption of a high-power picosecond laser pulse by a s olid target were investigated experimentally making use of the 'Progress-P' Nd : glass laser facility (lambda = 1053 nm, tau = 1.4 ps) at radiation in tensities I = 10(16)-10(19) W cm(-2) on the target surface. It was found th at, for I less than or equal to 10(17) W cm(-2), more than 30% of the inten sity of the scattered light was contained in the specularly reflected compo nent. The absorption coefficient of the laser radiation with intensities ra nging from 10(18) to 10(19) W cm(-2) was higher for targets made of materia ls with higher atomic numbers.