Explosions of water clusters in intense laser fields
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1 Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005 (India)
Energetic, highly charged oxygen ions O{sup q+} (q{<=}6), are copiously produced upon laser field-induced disassembly of highly charged water clusters, (H{sub 2}O){sub n} and (D{sub 2}O){sub n}, n{approx}60, that are formed by seeding high-pressure helium or argon with water vapor. Ar{sub n} clusters (n{approx}40 000) formed under similar experimental conditions are found to undergo disassembly in the Coulomb explosion regime, with the energies of Ar{sup q+} ions showing a q{sup 2} dependence. Water clusters, which are argued to be considerably smaller in size, should also disassemble in the same regime, but the energies of fragment O{sup q+} ions are found to depend linearly on q which, according to prevailing wisdom, ought to be a signature of hydrodynamic expansion that is expected of much larger clusters. The implication of these observations on our understanding of the two cluster explosion regimes, Coulomb explosion and hydrodynamic expansion, is discussed. Our results indicate that charge state dependences of ion energy do not constitute an unambiguous experimental signature of cluster explosion regime.
- OSTI ID:
- 20639781
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 67, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.67.063207; (c) 2003 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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