Ionization avalanching in clusters ignited by extreme-ultraviolet driven seed electrons

Abstract

We study the ionization dynamics of Ar clusters exposed to ultrashort near-infrared (NIR) laser pulses for intensities well below the threshold at which tunnel ionization ignites nanoplasma formation. We find that the emission of highly charged ions up to Ar${}^{8+}$ can be switched on with unit contrast by generating only a few seed electrons with an ultrashort extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse prior to the NIR field. Molecular dynamics simulations can explain the experimental observations and predict a generic scenario where efficient heating via inverse bremsstrahlung and NIR avalanching are followed by resonant collective nanoplasma heating. The temporally and spatially well-controlled injection of the XUV seed electrons opens new routes for controlling avalanching and heating phenomena in nanostructures and solids, with implications for both fundamental and applied laser-matter science.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Sub-cycle control of terahertz high-harmonic generation by dynamical Bloch oscillations
• Real-time observation of interfering crystal electrons in high-harmonic generation
• Ionization heating in rare-gas clusters under intense XUV laser pulses
• Laser-driven nanoplasmas in doped helium droplets: Local ignition and anisotropic expansion
• Rescattering for extended atomic systems

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Diffraction imaging of light induced dynamics in xenon-doped helium nanodroplets
• Long-lasting XUV activation of helium nanodroplets for avalanche ionization
• Dopant-induced ignition of helium nanoplasmas -- a mechanistic study
• Tracing transient charges in expanding clusters
• Effective Transparency in the XUV: A Pump-Probe Test of Atomistic Laser-Cluster Models
• On the Generation of Multiply Charged Argon Ions in Nanosecond Laser Field Ionization of Argon