Nanosecond rise-time laser-produced stress pulses with no asymptotic decay

Abstract
Stress pulses with rise times of 1.14 ns and amplitudes in excess of 3 GPa are produced using an Nd:YAG laser. In contrast to pulse profile assuming an asymptotic tail at about 5% to 10% of the peak stress, the pulses reported here show much sharper, post‐peak decays resulting in a zero stress at about 17 ns. Use of such stress pulses in the determination of the tensile strength of planar interfaces between thin coatings of 0.1‐μm thickness and substrates is also discussed.