Standard 25-m-thick polyvinilydene fluoride ͑PVDF͒ piezoelectric gauges and new 450-m-thick P͑VDF 70%, TrFE 30%͒ piezoelectric copolymer have been used to record shock profiles at the back face of metallic targets irradiated by laser pulses of 2.5 and 0.6 ns duration at a 1.06 m wavelength. The records are fully explained with simplified space-time diagram analysis. The pressure profile applied at the front face of the target has been determined from these records combined with numerical simulations of wave propagation through the target. A numerical code describing the interaction of laser with matter ͑FILM͒ has also been used for computing the applied pressure. Both methods lead to very close results. The peak pressure dependence on incident laser intensity is determined up to 30 GPa at 10 12 W/cm 2 .

Piezoelectric polymer gauge measurements were performed on the rear surface of plane copper and aluminum foils irradiated by infrared laser pulses of 1.5 ns duration, with intensities up to about 7 T W/ cm2, using recently developed transducers made of a vinylidene-fluoride and trifluoroethylene copolymer. Some gauge records have indicated that incipient spall damage occurs in the samples subjected to very intense shocks. This was confirmed by post-test examination of the targets. The experiments were simulated using two computer codes: one describes laser–matter interaction and provides input to the second code that handles wave propagation. A spall model for ductile metals is integrated in the wave code. The ability of those computer models to predict the experimental results was thereby tested. Overall agreement was obtained between the gauge measurements and calculations, except for some discrepancies that are discussed.