Spatial and temporal distributions of liquid drops in an erosion jet formed as a result of interaction of laser radiation with a lead target

A determination was made of the spatial and temporal distributions of the transmission, scattering, and absorption coefficients of ruby laser radiation used to probe an erosion jet created as a result of interaction of radiation from a free-running neodymium laser (output energy ~ 1 kJ and pulse duration ~ 1 ms) with a lead target. The experiments with a probe beam were supplemented by a spectroscopic study of the erosion jet. The probe results and the Love–Mie scattering theory were used to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of lead drops in an erosion jet formed as a result of volume vaporization.