Laser driven performance of a multilayer flyer with carbon absorption layer

Laser driving flyer technology has been studied for many years and widely used in dynamic high-pressure physics and impact dynamics, rapid initiation of high explosives, simulation of space debris and micro-forming of metal foil. The coupling efficiency between the flyer kinetic energy and the laser energy could be improved by introducing a layer with stronger absorption at the 1064nm wavelength Nd:YAG laser, resulting in higher flyer velocity for a given laser energy. So a multilayer flyer (C/Al/Al2O3/Al) with Carbon absorption layer was designed and compared the flyer velocity with the flyer (Al/Al2O3/Al) without Carbon absorption layer. The experimental study was performed via the Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV). The results show that the velocity of flyer with Carbon absorption layer rose with fluctuations as laser energy increasing, and was lower than that without Carbon layer at the same laser energy. That means the addition of Carbon absorption layer decreased the flyer coupling efficiency.