Abstract

The pioneering work of Reilly and Wallace in the early 1980s led to a spectacular understanding of laser—aerosol interactions. Research has focused, on the one hand, on the description of the vaporization process and the associated hydrodynamic phenomena. On the other hand, on the basis of semi-analytic and Monte Carlo techniques, predictive numerical algorithms have been constructed. They enable one to study the broadening and distortion of laser pulses in the process of vaporization, thermal blooming, turbulence, burning, and plasma formation. This paper summarizes the basic physics underlying the process of single droplet vaporization and cloud recondensation. Experiments performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory on laser propagation through clouds will be described. We also formulate the hydrodynamics in the region surrounding the droplet. The propagation algorithm developed under the forward scattering approximation—supplemented by the energy conservation condition—allows us to study the pulse distortion and the laser-assisted imaging in the evaporating clouds. We assess the significance of turbulent mixing and recondensation in a cleared channel. In addition, the effects of high-energy pulses on the burning of carbon particles and plasma formation in metallic aerosols will be discussed.

© 1992 Optical Society of America