Effect of temperature on the laser initiation of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)

The temperature dependence of the probability of PETN explosion upon laser pulse initiation (1064 nm, 10 ns, 1-5 J) was examined. As the temperature increases from 393 K to 450 K, the initiation threshold lowers, with the initiation of open-surface samples occurring over the entire temperature range. It was concluded that the initiation mechanism involves thermal-and photoactivation steps. The activation energy for the thermal activation step was found to be 0.35 +/- 0.05 eV.