Localisation of intense sound produced by an optical pulsating discharge in the air

It is shown that the localisation radius and the spectrum of intense sound produced by an optical pulsating discharge in the air depend on the power and repetition rate of the repetitively pulsed laser radiation, which is associated with a manifestation of the wave merging mechanism and sound absorption in the air. The experiment makes use of a CO2 laser with a power of ~1.5 kW and a repetition rate of microsecond pulses of ~50 kHz.