Optical investigation of cavitation erosion by laser-induced bubble collapse

By means of a new force sensor based on optical beam deflection (OBD), the mechanical effects of laser-matter interaction underwater at different incident laser energy are investigated in detail. The experimental results show that a target underwater is impacted in turn by laser-plasma ablation force and high-speed liquid-jet impulse induced by bubbles collapse in the vicinity of a solid boundary. Furthermore, the amplitudes of the two forces increase monotonously with laser energy. According to the ablation force detected by the experiment and the theoretical relationship between laser intensity and ablation pressure, the value of liquid-jet impact against a solid boundary can be easily obtained. In addition, based on the model of a collapsing bubble, some characteristic parameters, such as the liquid-jet impact velocity, the maximum bubble radius, the bubble energy can also be obtained at different laser energy, which are valuable in the corresponding research fields. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All fights reserved.