Abstract

Pulsed laser irradiation is being used for studying the condensed phases of materials at very high temperatures (3000–10,000 K). Whittaker et al.¹ have observed that liquid carbon can be obtained by heating graphite samples above 3800 K by intense CO₂ laser radiation. From Rutherford backscattering experiments on graphite samples previously irradiated by nanosecond 0.69-μm laser pulses, Venkatesan et al.² concluded that the sample surface melts when a temperature of ≈3800 K is reached.

© 1986 Optical Society of America