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 solid target were investigated experimentally making use of the Progress-P'' Nd: glass laser facility (λ = 1053 nm, τ = 1.4 ps) at radiation intensities I = 10¹⁶ — 10¹⁹ W cm^–2 on the target surface. It was found that, for I ≤ 10¹⁷ W cm^–2, more than 30% of the intensity of the scattered light was contained in the specularly reflected component. The absorption coefficient of the laser radiation with intensities ranging from 10¹⁸ to 10¹⁹ W cm^–2 was higher for targets made of materials with higher atomic numbers.