Asymmetric explosion of clusters in intense laser fields

Journal Article · Wed Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4747160· OSTI ID:22086070

Kundu, M ^[1]

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1. Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gandhinagar 382 428, Gujarat (India)

We examine asymmetric expansion of argon clusters illuminated by 800 nm laser pulses of duration Almost-Equal-To 23fs, using three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. For this short pulse duration, laser energy absorption by cluster electrons is dominated by the nonlinear resonance (NLR) absorption process [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 123401 (2006)]. In this work, we concentrate, particularly, on the ionic outcome in the NLR regime and show that higher charge states of argon ions are produced along the laser polarization than in the transverse directions leading to the anisotropy (asymmetry) in the ion energy distribution. This anisotropy already established during the short pulse duration (or in the early duration of a long pulse) may contribute to the anisotropic ion emission reported in cluster experiments with pulse duration longer than 100 fs. Our PIC results are compared with a charged-sphere model showing that cluster explosion is mainly due to Coulomb repulsion between the cluster ions.

• OSTI ID: 22086070
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 19; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANISOTROPY
ARGON IONS
CHARGE STATES
COULOMB FIELD
ELECTRONS
ENERGY ABSORPTION
ENERGY SPECTRA
ION EMISSION
ION PAIRS
LASER RADIATION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA SIMULATION
POLARIZATION
PULSES
RESONANCE ABSORPTION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS