Interaction of xenon clusters with intense sub-cycle laser pulses

Abstract

In this work, we have studied the interaction dynamics of the intense sub-cycle laser with the Xe2600 (Xenon) cluster by using a molecular dynamic code. The code is benchmarked against a couple of experimental works on Xe clusters. In the sub-cycle regime, the plane wave prescription of the laser pulse is not adequate, giving unrealistic field profiles, and hence in this study, we have relied on complex-source based sub-cycle pulsed beam model, which is an exact solution of Maxwell's equations. In order to see the effect of the sub-cycle pulses, the laser pulse duration is varied from 0.2 to 1 laser cycle while keeping the pulse energy conserved (by varying the peak amplitude with pulse duration). It has been observed that for the same laser energy the more energetic ions are obtained for sub-cycle pulses. Although the cluster explosion is symmetric, higher charge states are observed along the direction of laser polarization. The conversion efficiency of the energy absorbed per atom to average kinetic energy is found to be maximum for the shortest pulse duration of 0.2 laser cycle. The scaling law for maximum ion energy, total energy absorbed, and average kinetic energy of the ions with laser pulse duration is also deduced.