Expansion of matter heated by an ultrashort laser pulse

Recent experiments have utilizied high-power subpicosecond laser pulses to effect the ultrafast heating of a condensed material to temperatures far above the critical temperature. Using optical diagnostics it was established that a complicated density profile with sharp gradients, differing substantially from an ordinary rarefaction wave, forms in the expanding heated matter. The present letter is devoted to the analysis of the expansion of matter under the conditions of the experiments reported by D. von der Linde, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, and J. Bialkowski, Appl. Surf. Science 109/110, 1 (1996); K. Sokolowski-Tinten, J. Bialkowski, A. Cavalleri et al., Proc. Soc. Photo-Opt. Instum. Eng. 3343, 46 (1998); and, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, J. Bialkowski, A. Cavalleri et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 224 (1998). It is shown that if the unloading adiabat passes through the two-phase region, a thin liquid shell filled with low-density two-phase matter forms in the expanding material. The shell moves with a constant velocity. The velocity in the two-phase material is a linear function of the coordinate (flow with uniform deformation), and the density is independent of the coordinate and decreases with time as t(-1). (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-3640(99)00604-0].