Theory of laser radiation damage to surfaces of opaque materials

A local approximation is used to study the dynamics of the surface relief of a solid subjected to high-power laser radiation in the case when the rate of damage is proportional to the absorbed energy density. An equation for the dynamics of the surface relief is derived allowing for the dependence of the absorption coefficient on the angle of incidence. It is shown that in the case of a plane-parallel beam the problem of determination of the surface relief at different moments in time reduces to the problem of quadratures. A study is made of the dependence of the depth of a cut on the velocity of a sample, power of the incident radiation, and its polarization. The dynamics of damage to the walls of a waveguide under the action of its normal modes is considered.