The possibility of increasing the heating efficiency and the ignition rate of secondary explosives with photo-absorbing additives under continuous near-infrared laser radiation was studied. The samples were used in the form of capsules obtained by pressing powders of the following materials: PETN, TNT and epsilon-CL-20. Carbon black, CuO, nanoscale Al (nAl) and carbon nanotubes were used as photosensitizers. It has been demonstrated that nAl is the most suitable photosensitizer for use with explosives, as it has rather high absorption properties, comparable to those of carbon black, but is easier and more evenly dispersed within the volume of the energetic material. The process of laser heating of PETN, TNT and epsilon-CL-20 has been studied with different mass fractions of nAl. It has been demonstrated that the addition of nAl can increase the efficiency of epsilon-CL-20 laser heating by 10-100 times. The dependence of ignition delay of nAl-containing epsilon-CL-20 on the power of laser radiation has been studied. Relatively short (2-10 ms) ignition delay has been achieved for epsilon-CL-20+nAl (0.5%) with relatively low continuous laser radiation power (1-4W) at 0.98 mu m wavelength. (C) 2019 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.