Laser Excitation of Powdered Solids

Abstract

AN understanding of the physical processes which occur when solids are subjected to intense surface heating is important to meteor and re-entry physics and to the physics of comets. These processes have been investigated spectroscopically in the laboratory by shock excitation^1,2, flash photolysis^3,4 and the impact flash⁵. As shown by Stoicheff⁶, the high temperatures obtainable by using a focused ruby laser beam provide yet another means for the excitation of solids. It is the purpose of this note to report briefly on the spectroscopic investigations which have been made on laser excitation of molecular spectra from powdered solids during the past two years.