The characteristics of laser-initiated plasma shutters used for retropulse isolation in high-power CO2 laser-fusion systems are discussed. Initiation of the plasma breakdown is shown to depend on the fluence that is incident on the edge of the iris which is employed in these shutters. A relatively simple model for the ignition process has been verified for a range of pulse durations (0.7–60 ns) and iris diameters (100–800 mm). This model provides practical design criteria for sizing plasma isolators for a variety of applications.
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Czuchlewski et al. (1981) studied this question.
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