Results of the experimental studies of dynamics and optical properties oflaser-induced plasmas are presented. Laserswith microsecond pulse width at %=O.3O8 and 10.6 i.on were used. Spatially and temporally resolved plasma emissionspectroscopy and laser beam absorption measurements were used to reveal plasma plume structure. It has been shown thatin the case oflow absorption at the plasma front, a two component plasma isformed with gas plasna temperature above 3eV and electron number density in both gas and target vapor plasma in the range 1018 3 .J19 cm3. Comparison of the experimental data with computer modeipredictions is presented 1. INTRODUCTION In this work we will discuss only plasma created on a solid surface at the incident power density ranging from 1 MW/cm2to 10 GW/cm2. This range is typical for many modes of pulsed laser-assisted treatment of materials. The plasma produced at the surface can be characterized by the origin of its ionized atoms, whether they belong to the gas or target material. Theplasma composed of the target material atoms often is called erosion plasma. However, in a real situation of laser-assistedmaterial processing the plasma plume often consists of both target material and the ambient gas. Optical properties and
