Collisionless energy absorption in the short-pulse intense laser-cluster interaction

Abstract

In a previous Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 123401 (2006)] we have shown by means of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and a simple rigid-sphere model that nonlinear resonance absorption is the dominant collisionless absorption mechanism in the intense, short-pulse laser cluster interaction. In this paper we present a more detailed account of the matter. In particular we show that the absorption efficiency is almost independent of the laser polarization. In the rigid-sphere model, the absorbed energy increases by many orders of magnitude at a certain threshold laser intensity. The particle-in-cell results display maximum fractional absorption around the same intensity. We calculate the threshold intensity and show that it is underestimated by the common over-barrier ionization estimate.

12 pages, 13 figures, RevTeX4

References in corpus (7)

• Ionization of clusters in intense laser pulses through collective electron dynamics
• Small rare gas clusters in soft X-ray pulses
• Asymmetric emission of high energy electrons in the two-dimensional hydrodynamic expansion of large xenon clusters irradiated by intense laser fields
• Nonlinear resonance absorption in laser-cluster interaction
• Anisotropic "charge-flipping" acceleration of highly charged ions from $(N_2{)}_n$ clusters in strong optical fields
• Dynamical ionization ignition of clusters in intense and short laser pulses
• Surface plasma resonance in small rare gas clusters by mixing IR and VUV laser pulses

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Harmonic Generation from Laser-Irradiated Clusters
• Harmonic emission from cluster nanoplasmas subject to intense short laser pulses
• Optimizing the ionization and energy absorption of laser-irradiated clusters
• Anharmonic resonance absorption of short laser pulses in clusters: A molecular dynamics simulation study
• Dynamical resonance shift and unification of resonances in short-pulse laser cluster interaction
• Electron motion enhanced high harmonic generation in xenon clusters