Experimental investigation of the dynamics of laser-induced gas-plasma flows under femtosecond laser ablation of copper in vacuum

Thermophysical and gas-dynamic characteristics of gas-plasma flows induced by ultrashort laser pulses interacting with a thin-film copper target in vacuum were studied experimentally. Using combined laser interferometry and complex processing of experimental data, we estimated the momentum coupling coefficient and the efficiency of laser-energy conversion to kinetic energy, spatiotemporal distributions of the number density and velocities of particles, pressure, and temperature in the gas-plasma flow. We provide comparative analysis of presented data with those found in the literature, which were obtained by other methods.