Multiple ionization of rare gas atoms irradiated with intense VUV radiation

The interaction of intense vacuum-ultraviolet radiation from a free-electron laser with rare gas atoms is investigated. The ionization products of xenon and argon atomic beams are analyzed with time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. At 98 nm wavelength and approximately 10(13) W/cm(2) multiple charged ions up to Xe6+ (Ar4+) are detected. From the intensity dependence of multiple charged ion yields the mechanisms of multiphoton processes were derived. In the range of approximately 10(12)-10(13) W/cm(2) the ionization is attributed to sequential multiphoton processes. The production of multiple charged ions saturates at 5-30 times lower power densities than at 193 and 564 nm wavelength, respectively.     

Small rare gas clusters in XUV laser pulses

Semi-classical molecular dynamics simulations of small rare gas clusters in short laser pulses of 100 nm wavelength were performed. For comparison, the cluster response to 800 nm laser pulses was investigated as well. The inner ionization dynamics of multi-electron atoms inside the cluster was treated explicitly. The simulation results underpin the belief that at XUV (extreme ultraviolet) wavelengths collisions play an important role in the energy absorption. The generation of the surprisingly high charge states of Xe atoms inside clusters, as they were observed in a free-electron laser experiment at DESY, Hamburg, Germany by Wabnitz et al. is due to the reduced ionization potential of atoms inside charged clusters, the ionization ignition mechanism, and collisions. PACS 36.40.Gk; 36.40.Vz; 31.15.Gy     

Interaction of intense laser pulses with atomic clusters at different gas densities

The interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with rare gas clusters was studied experimentally,the time-of-flight spectra of ions from exploding clusters at different gas densities have been measured. It is found that while the relative components of ions inlow and high energy of the ion energy spectrum decrease with the increase of the gas density,the average ion energies are the same for different gas densities,which indicates that the effect of gas density on laser-cluster interaction is not important under our experimental conditions.     

强激光与等离子体相互作用中沿靶表面发射的高能超热电子

在强激光与等离子体相互作用研究中，文章作者从实验上首次观测到沿靶面方向发射的高能超热电子束．该电子束只有在等离子体电子密度标长较短的条件下才会出现。数值模拟表明，靶表面电磁场的约束作用是产生这束电子的主要原因。这一结果有助于加深对激光惯性约束聚变快点火实验中的锥靶物理过程的理解，并有潜在的应用前景。     

Interaction of intense laser pulses with hydrogen atomic clusters

The interaction between intense femtosecond laser pulses and hydrogen atomic clusters is studied by a simplified Coulomb explosion model. The dependences of average proton kinetic energy on cluster size, pulse duration, laser intensity and wavelength are studied respectively. The calculated results indicate that the irradiation of a femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on hydrogen atomic clusters may be a simple, economical way to produce highly kinetic hydrogen ions. The phenomenon suggests that the irradiation of femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on deuterium atomic clusters may be easier than that of shorter wavelength to drive nuclear fusion reactions. The product of the laser intensity and the squared laser wavelength needed to make proton energy saturated as a function of the squared cluster radius is also investigated. The proton energy distribution calculated is also shown and compared with the experimental data. Our results are in agreement with the experimental results fairly well.     

Metallic-like droplets produced by irradiating rare-gas clusters with free electron laser pulses

Unlike metallic elements, rare-gas atoms remain non-metallic even if they are condensed. However, once rare-gas clusters are irradiated by extreme ultraviolet free electron laser (EUV-FEL) pulses with slightly higher energy than their ionization potential, they exhibit metallic-like behaviors because the ionization takes place sequentially within the clusters owing to the huge valence electron ionization cross section in the EUV regime. In this work Ar and Xe clusters were produced by pulsed supersonic jets, and the cluster beams were crossed synchronously with focused EUV-FEL beams ejected from the SCSS test accelerator in Japan. We measured time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectra and kinetic energy distribution (KED) of daughter ions produced via Coulomb explosion by using three dimensional (3D) momentum imaging spectrometer. The metallic-like nature is evidenced not only by widely spread charge distributions within the cluster but also by enhanced positive surface charges surrounded by quasi-free electron clouds.     

Self-focusing of intense laser pulses in a clustered gas

We report the self-focusing of intense laser pulses in gases composed of atomic clusters. This is in strong contrast to beam spreading owing to ionization-induced refraction commonly observed in nonclustered gases. The effect is explained in terms of the ensemble average transient polarizability of the heated clusters as they explode in response to the intense pulse.     

Dynamics simulation on interaction of intense laser pulses with atomic clusters

Under classical particle dynamics, the interaction process between intense femtosecond laser pulses and icosahedral noble-gas atomic clusters was studied. Our calculated results show that ionization proceeds mainly through tunnel ionization in the combined field from ions, electrons and laser, rather than the electron-impact ionization. With increasing cluster size, the average and maximum kinetic energy of the product ion increases. According to our calculation, the expansion process of the clusters after laser irradiation is dominated by Coulomb explosion and the expansion scale increases with increasing cluster size. The dependence of average kinetic energy and average charge state of the product ions on laser wavelength is also presented and discussed. The dependence of average kinetic energy on the number of atoms inside the cluster was studied and compared with the experimental data. Our results agree with the experimental results reasonably well.     

Observation of X-ray spectra from nitrogen clusters irradiated with high-intensity ultrashort laser pulses

X-ray spectra from nitrogen clusters irradiated with ultrashort laser pulses are reported. The line spectra of H-like and He-like nitrogen ions have been observed by irradiation with 100 fs, 800 nm pulses at 7×10¹⁷ W/cm² irradiance. The generation of highly charged ions of N⁶⁺ and N⁷⁺ is explained by the optical field-induced ionization and the subsequent collisional ionizations in the clusters. The He-δline has anomalously high brightness compared to other He-like lines. It is ascribed to charge exchange, which preferentially populates the n=5 level of N⁵⁺. Received: 7 October 1999 / Published online: 23 February 2000     

Explosions of xenon clusters in ultraintense femtosecond x-ray pulses from the LCLS free electron laser

Explosions of large Xe clusters ( ~ 11,000) irradiated by femtosecond pulses of 850 eV x-ray photons focused to an intensity of up to 10(17) W/cm(2) from the Linac Coherent Light Source were investigated experimentally. Measurements of ion charge-state distributions and energy spectra exhibit strong evidence for the formation of a Xe nanoplasma in the intense x-ray pulse. This x-ray produced Xe nanoplasma is accompanied by a three-body recombination and hydrodynamic expansion. These experimental results appear to be consistent with a model in which a spherically exploding nanoplasma is formed inside the Xe cluster and where the plasma temperature is determined by photoionization heating.     

Observation of a fast electron beam emitted along the surface of a target irradiated by intense femtosecond laser pulses

A novel fast electron beam emitting along the surface of a target irradiated by intense laser pulses is observed. The beam is found to appear only when the plasma density scale length is small. Numerical simulations reveal that the electron beam is formed due to the confinement of the surface quasistatic electromagnetic fields. The results are of interest for potential applications of fast electron beams and deep understanding of the cone-target physics in the fast ignition related experiments.     

Harmonic emission from the rear side of thin overdense foils irradiated with intense ultrashort laser pulses

The harmonic emission from thin solid carbon and aluminum foils, irradiated by 150 fs long frequency-doubled Ti:sapphire laser pulses at lambda=395 nm and peak intensities of a few 10(18) W/cm(2), has been studied. In addition to the harmonics emitted from the front side in the specular direction, we observe harmonics up to the 10th order, including the fundamental from the rear side in the direction of the incident beam, while the foil is still strongly overdense. The experimental observations are well reproduced by particle-in-cell simulations. They reveal that strong coupling between the laser-irradiated side and the rear side occurs via the nonlocal electron current driven by the laser light.     

Study on the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with nanometre-sized hydrogen clusters

The interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with hydrogen clusters has been experimentally studied. The hydrogen clusters were produced from expansion of high-pressure hydrogen gas (backed up to 8\tm10⁶Pa) into vacuum through a conical nozzle cryogenically cooled by liquid nitrogen. The average size of hydrogen clusters was estimated by Rayleigh scattering measurement and the maximum proton energy of up to 4.2keV has been obtained from the Coulomb explosion of hydrogen clusters under 2×10¹⁶ W/cm² laser irradiation. Dependence of the maximum proton energy on cluster size and laser intensity was investigated, indicating the correlation between the laser intensity and the cluster size. The maximum proton energy is found to be directly proportional to the laser intensity, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction.     

Fast-ion energy-flux enhancement from ultrathin foils irradiated by intense and high-contrast short laser pulses

Recent significant improvements of the contrast ratio of chirped pulse amplified pulses allows us to extend the applicability domain of laser accelerated protons to very thin targets. In this framework, we propose an analytical model particularly suitable to reproducing ion laser acceleration experiments using high intensity and ultrahigh contrast pulses. The model is based on a self-consistent solution of the Poisson equation using an adiabatic approximation for laser generated fast electrons which allows one to find the target thickness maximizing the maximum proton (and ion) energies and population as a function of the laser parameters. Model furnished values show a good agreement with experimental data and 2D particle-in-cell simulation results.     

Studies of ion energy and yield from argon clusters heated by intense femtosecond laser pulses

Using time-of-flight spectrometry, the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with argon clusters has been studied by measuring the energy and yield of emitted ions. With two different supersonic nozzles, the dependence of average ion energy on cluster size in a large range of has been measured. The experimental results indicate that when the cluster size , the average ion energy Coulomb explosion is the dominant expansion mechanism. Beyond this size, the average ion energy gets saturated gradually, the clusters exhibit a mixed Coulomb-hydrodynamic expansion behavior. We also find that with the increasing gas backing pressure, there is a maximum ion yield, the ion yield decreases as the gas backing pressure is further increased.     

Spectral distributions of harmonic generation from electron oscillation driven by intense femtosecond laser pulses

The characteristics of harmonic radiation due to electron oscillation driven by an intense femtosecond laser pulse are analyzed considering a single electron model. An interesting modulated structure of the spectrum is observed and analyzed for different polarization. Higher order harmonic radiations are possible for a sufficiently intense driving laser pulse. We have shown that for a realistic pulsed photon beam, the spectrum of the radiation is red shifted as well as broadened because of changes in the longitudinal velocity of the electrons during the laser pulse. These effects are more pronounced at higher laser intensities giving rise to higher order harmonics that eventually leads to a continuous spectrum. Numerical simulations have further shown that by increasing the laser pulse width broadening of the high harmonic radiations can be limited.     

Impact of ionic motion on ionization of metal clusters under intense laser pulses

We discuss the impact of ionic motion on ionization of metal clusters subject to intense laser pulses in a microscopic approach. We show that for long enough pulses, ionic expansion can drive the system into resonance with the electronic plasmon resonance, which leads to a strongly enhanced ionization.     

Dynamics of free and embedded lead clusters in intense laser fields

Lead clusters are exposed to strong femtosecond light pulses. The dependence of the recoil energy on the charge state of the atomic ion is now investigated using a new detection setup, i.e., a Thomson analyser. First results show that in contrast to laser-induced overdense plasmas at surfaces the recoil energy distribution appears much narrower. Comparing free lead clusters with lead clusters embedded in large helium droplets, the charging dynamics show distinct differences on the femtosecond time scale. In the embedded case the maximum ionization enhancement is reached earlier.