Experimental investigations are ongoing to study the force imparted to materials when subjected to laser ablation. When a laser pulse of sufficient energy density impacts a material, a small amount of the material is ablated. A torsion balance is used to measure the momentum produced by the ablation process. The balance consists of a thin metal wire with a rotating pendulum suspended in the middle. The wire is fixed at both ends. Recently, multi-layered material systems were investigated. These multi-layered materials were composed of a transparent front surface and opaque sub surface. The laser pulse penetrates the transparent outer surface with minimum photon loss and vaporizes the underlying opaque layer.
Ablative Laser Propulsion Using Multi-Layered Material Systems
33rd AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference ; 2002 ; Maui, HI, United States
2002-01-01
Preprint
Keine Angabe
Englisch
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