Boundary instability of an erosion laser plasma expanding into a background gas

The stability of the contact region in the system consisting of an erosion plasma and a gas has been determined experimentally under conditions such that the length of the applied laser pulse is longer than the rise time of the instability, and the expansion of the erosion plume is accompanied by breakdown of the background gas. The evolution of perturbations of the plasma front following the introduction of initial perturbations with a fixed spatial period has been studied. It is possible to model the injection of plasma bunches into a low-pressure gas by studying the dynamics of the vaporization at moderate laser-light intensities, characteristic of technological applications.