Pulsed-CO2 laser-material interaction: thermomechanical effects

It's well known now that, under peculiar conditions, the laser-matter coupling is highly dependent on the plasma formation in front of the irradiated sample. The experiments with results presented here have been carried out over a range of intensity large enough to be able to discriminate the main stages of the interaction and particularly the effects of the plasma with the increasing intensity. The first part of this paper is devoted to the experimental conditions, whereas the results are discussed in a second part. Finally, a balance of the interaction is drawn up.