Experimental study on attenuation of high power laser- induced shock waves in copper

When a high power laser is focused onto a solid, the blow-off of the high temperature plasma generated at the target surface can induce a shock wave inside the material. The ultrahigh pressures generated in the material are useful in the dynamic high-pressure technology and inertial-confinement-fusiont.Although many investigations have been made on laser-induced shock waves and the estimated pressures were obtained by Gu Yuan et al. using optical methods, few direct measurements of pressures have been made in order to dig out the attenuation of laser-induced shock waves up to now. In this note shock pressures in copper are measured by use of PVDF gauges made by the authors, and the attenuation of laser-induced shock waves is experimentally obtained for the