Properties of femtosecond laser-driven shock waves in aluminum

The frequency-domain interferometry has been used to study the properties of shock waves driven by the femtosecond laser. The observation results of shock waves driven by a 0.7 mJ, 35 fs pulse laser with the intensity of 1014W/cm2 level in a 200 nm-thick aluminum film were presented. From the transit time varying with the thickness of aluminium film, the shock velocity was measured to be about 6 km/s. The measured frequency-domain interferograms showed that the rear surface velocity was 1 km/s, and according to the relation of planar shock waves, the shock pressure was calculated to be 9 GPa．