Abstract

The paper is devoted to study of formation and propagation of electromagnetic shock waves resulted from nonresonant self-action of high-power laser field in dielectric. Much attention is paid to three aspects of this problem: 1) necessary conditions for the shock waves to appear; 2) energy and power characteristics of their formation; 3) nonlinear optical phenomena accompanying shock waves. Some traditional aspects of the problem, in particular, speed of the shock waves [1,2] are also touched upon. It is shown that the shock waves can appear only if both electric-field amplitude and modulus of spatial derivation of electric field exceed certain threshold values. This implies two necessary conditions to be satisfied for the shock waves to be formed. The conditions are used to estimate threshold amplitude of incident laser radiation which is about 100 MV/cm². Dependence of threshold of shock-wave formation on material parameters is investigated. In particular, it is shown strong dependence of the threshold on nonlinear coefficient of refraction and weak dependence on refraction index. Layered dielectric is show to be the most suitable media for the shock waves to appear.

© 1998 IEEE