Possible Relation between Optical Breakdown and Metallization of Extremely Pure Transparent Dielectrics

摘要

The development of laser facilities and in particular of the technique of generating intense light fluxes is being held back, because intense laser radiation induces an optical breakdown leading to irreversible changes in the optical elements of lasers. Interest in the optical-breakdown phenomenon in transparent dielectrics is primarily associated with the practical requirements of laser facilities, because the focusing and transfer of intense laser pulses are impossible without revealing mechanisms of the laser destruction of dielectrics. Laser destruction is of its own scientific interest as one of the fundamental problems concerning the physics of the interaction of intense electromagnetic radiation with matter.