Explosive vaporization of small droplets

Abstract

A model has been created of the explosive vaporization of small droplets by the absorption of energy from a high energy laser beam. The model consists of a polarizable drop of fluid interacting with laser radiation. A criterion for the explosion of the droplet has been introduced. Selfsimilarity is invoked to reduce the spherically symmetric problem involving hydrodynamics and Maxwell's equations to simple quadrature. Experimental evidence in favor of the model is cited