Laser-induced breakdown in the rare gases using picosecond Nd:glass laser pulses: theoretical interpretation through the effective-photon concept

Breakdown thresholds in the rare gases irradiated with picosecond Nd:glass laser pulses have been measured recently as a function of gas pressure. The analysis has shown that the experimental results cannot be interpreted through the usual process of multiphoton ionization. The present paper demonstrates that these results are predicted by effective-photon theory and a correlation between gas ionization with nanosecond pulses and with picosecond pulses is shown to exist. (author)