Laser energy partitioning in nanosecond pulsed laser-induced air breakdown: effect of incident laser energy

Air breakdown is generated by a 1064 nm nanosecond pulsed laser beam, and laser energy deposited in the breakdown (E d ), transmitted through the plasma region (E t ) and carried away by the shock wave (E s ) is estimated for the incident laser energy (E i ) range of 60–273 mJ. The E d is approximately 85% of E i at 60 mJ, rapidly increasing to 92% at 102 mJ. The shock wave front velocity and radius are measured as a function of E i and propagation distance. The shock wave velocity nicely follows the v∝E i 0.3 trend predicted by the laser-supported detonation wave model. The Sedov–Taylor theory is used to estimate E s , which rapidly increases with E i , but E i to E s conversion linearly decreases from 83% to 48%. At lower values of E i , most of the laser energy is carried away by the shock wave, whereas the laser energy used in plasma heating or released in the form of electromagnetic and thermal radiation becomes important at higher laser energies. This implies that laser energy partitioning is highly dependent on the value of incident laser energy. These findings provide important insights into the fundamental physics of air breakdown and will be useful in a variety of applications such as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, laser ignition, and laser propulsion.