Measurements of Air Breakdown and Scaling to Microwaves Using 193 nm Focused Laser Radiation

Author

Thiyagarajan, Magesh ; Scharer, John ; Denning, C. Mark ; Luo, Siqi

Author_Institution

Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison

fYear

2007

fDate

15-17 May 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

We report the measurements and analysis of air breakdown processes by focusing 193 nm, 200 mJ, 10 MW high power UV laser radiation on to a 10 - 20 mum spot size that produces laser power densities up to 10¹² -10¹³ W/cm² , well above the threshold power flux for air ionization. The breakdown threshold is measured and compared with classical and quantum theoretical models. A universal scaling analysis of these results allows one to predict some aspects of high power microwave breakdown based on measured laser breakdown observations.

Keywords

laser variables measurement; UV laser radiation; air breakdown analysis; air breakdown measurement; air ionization; laser breakdown observation; laser power density; microwave breakdown; microwave scaling; quantum theoretical model; size 10 mum to 20 mum; size 193 nm; threshold power flux; universal scaling analysis; Density measurement; Electric breakdown; Laser modes; Laser theory; Masers; Microwave measurements; Power lasers; Power measurement; Quantum well lasers; Size measurement; Breakdown Scaling; Excimer Laser; Laser Induced Plasma; Microwave Breakdown; Shadowgraphy; Two-colour Interferometry;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Vacuum Electronics Conference, 2007. IVEC '07. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Kitakyushu

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0633-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IVELEC.2007.4283253

Filename

4283253