Detonation initiation via surface chemical reaction of laser ablated aluminum sample

We explore the evolution of metal plasma generated by high laser irradiances and its effect on the surrounding air by using shadowgraph images after laser pulse termination and X ray diffraction (XRD) of aluminum plasma ablated by a high power laser pulse (>1000mJ/pulse) and oxygen from air. Hence, the formation of laser supported detonation and combustion processes has been investigated. The essence of this paper is in observing the initiation of chemical reaction between the ablated aluminum plasma and oxygen from air by the high power laser pulse (>1000mJ/pulse) and in conducting a quantitative comparison of the chemically reactive laser initiated waves with the classical detonation of an exploding aluminum (dust) cloud in air. The findings in this work may lead to a new method of initiating detonation from a metal sample in its bulk form without any need to mix nanoparticles with oxygen for initiation