Subnanosecond schlieren photography of laser-induced gas breakdown

Abstract

Second harmonic radiation from a mode-locked neodymium:glass laser, providing a 400-nsec-long train of picosecond pulses, has been used as a light source for Schlieren photography of a laser-induced spark. The beam from a ruby laser, Q-switched by means of a Pockels cell, was focused in air to produce breakdown and synchronization of the two lasers was achieved by switching the Pockels cell with a spark gap illuminated by the mode-locked pulse train. © 1968 The American Institute of Physics.