Various regimes of externally maintained propagation of an exothermal reaction front in a condensed medium

The approximation of an infinitesimally thin reaction zone is used in a study of a onedimensional model of the propagation of an exothermal reaction front in the case of additional external heating of a substance by laser radiation. Steady-state solutions are obtained and the ranges of their stability are found in a plane formed by the velocity of the laser beam and the rate of reaction. The results of an analytic study are compared with those obtained by a numerical solution of the equations for the temperature and concentration of a reagent when the parameters correspond to steady-state and oscillatory regimes of reaction front propagation. An analysis is made of the use of these results in the description of instabilities in the case of laser cutting of materials and laser crystallization of thin amorphous semiconductor films.