Plasma production during vaporization of materials by the radiation from a CO2 TEA laser

The energy and space and time dependence are investigated for a laser flare. Two qualitatively different regimes are discovered for the ejection of the plasma, where the transition between them has a threshold character (in the radiation flux density). The measured dependence of the threshold on the atomic number of the target element has a form which is indicative of a connection between the dynamics of the flare formation and the electronic structure of the atom. A model is proposed for interpreting this effect