Laser induced plane acoustic wave generation, propagation, and interaction with rigid structures in water

Short pulsed laser induced single acoustic wave generation, propagation, interaction with rigid structures, and focusing in water are experimentally and numerically studied. A large area short duration single plane acoustic wave was generated by the thermoelastic interaction of a homogenized nanosecond pulsed laser beam with a liquid-solid interface and propagated at the speed of sound in water. Laser flash schlieren photography was used to visualize the transient interaction of the plane acoustic wave with various submerged rigid structures [(a) a single block, (b) double blocks, (c) $33°$ tilted single block, and (d) concave cylindrical acoustic lens configurations]. Excellent agreement between the experimental results and numerical simulation is observed. Our simulation results demonstrate that the laser induced planar acoustic wave can be focused down to several tens of micron size and several bars in pressure.