Resonance laser-induced ionisation of sodium vapour taking radiative transfer into account

The problem of ionisation of atomic sodium in the field of resonance laser radiation is numerically solved taking radiative transfer into account. Seed electrons are produced due to the mechanism of associative ionisation, then they gain energy in superelastic processes (collisions of the second kind) and initiate the avalanche ionisation of the medium by electron impact. We studied the effect of secondary radiation on the laser pulse propagation upon competition between the ionising and quenching electron collisions with excited atoms, on the kinetics of ionisation-induced vapour bleaching, and the plasma channel expansion in the form of a halo.