Full length articleComparative study of the expansion dynamics of laser-driven plasma and shock wave in in-air and underwater ablation regimes

•Plasma plumes induced in air and under water follow different expansion mechanisms.•The expansion of plasma in air follows laser-supported radiation wave model.•The expansion of plasma in water follows laser-supported detonation wave model.•Plasma expansion velocity in water was 70 times smaller than that induced in air.•Ideal blast wave theory cannot describe the decay of shock wave induced in water.

We compared the expansion characteristics of the plasma plumes and shock waves generated in laser-induced shock process between the two ablation regimes: in air and under water. The observation was made from the initial moment when the laser pulse hit the target until 1.5 μs. The shock processes were driven by focusing a single laser pulse (1064 nm, FWHM = 13 ns) onto the surface of epoxy-resin blocks using a 40-mm focal length lens. The estimated laser intensity at the target plane is approximate to 9×109Wcm-2. We used the fast-imaging technique to observe the expansion of the plasma plume and a custom-designed time-resolved photoelasticity imaging technique to observe the propagation of shock waves with the time resolution of nanoseconds. We found that at the same intensity of the laser beam, the plasma expansion during the laser pulse follows different mechanisms: the plasma plume that grows in air follows a radiation-wave model while a detonation-wave model can explain the expansion of the plasma plume induced in water. The ideal blast wave theory can be used to predict the decay of the shock wave in air but is not appropriate to describe the decay of the shock wave induced under water.