“…Planar SW with velocities as high as 30 km/s were initiated toward the laser beam by erosion plasma blow-off in rarefied air when 100-J, 100-ns KrF laser pulses irradiated solid targets (Zvorykin et al, , 2004a(Zvorykin et al, , 2004bLebo et al, , 2004Bakaev et al, 2005;Krasnyuk & Lebo, 2006). In a forward direction, the SW was pushed by thin polystyren (CH) films accelerated by free-expanding plasma up to velocities 3.5 km/s independently of the gas density.…”