Hydrodynamic processes in fused quartz under the action of laser radiation

The paper analyzes numerically the hydrodynamic processes developing inside the fused quartz under the action of intense laser impulses. Depending on laser intensity two basic regimes are obtained and described in details. At low intensities, the slow regime driven by the heat transfer is observed. Herewith, the fracture took place in the heated region before the phase transition. At higher intensities, the high-speed propagation regime is established characterized by the fracture events exactly at the interfacial boundary between the hot plasma and condensed phase. The propagation of absorption wave coupled with the fracture wave is limited by the value of sound speed in the hot plasma, which determines the expansion of plasma into the spallation region ahead of the absorption front. The proposed model of the process agrees well with the recent experimental data, in particular with the characteristic velocity scales. (paper)