| Abstract: | The profile of a laser crack in a transparent dielectric, polymethyl methacrylate (in the free-generation procedure), has been studied by the equal-thickness interference band method. It has been established that zones of changed material, a zone of slow change of profile, and a zone of rapidly changing profile (center of the crack) exist in the cross section of the crack. Values of thickness of the crack are given. Suggestions are expressed as to a possible mechanism of laser damage.Institute of Problems in Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 5, pp. 921–923, September–October, 1973. |
