Cluster nanoplasmas in strong FLASH pulses: formation, excitation and relaxation

Ulf Saalmann (1, 2)

1 MPI-PKS - Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
2 Max Planck Advanced Study Group at CFEL

Clusters exposed to intense laser radiation will quickly turn into nanoplasmas: short-lived electron plasmas confined by the charged cluster ions on a nanometer scale. Although the cluster will eventually explode, the transient multielectron dynamics during the pulse is of great interest and largely unexplored. It determines the mechanism of energy absorption and may thus help to understand measured electron and ion spectra, also in other samples like large molecules. Furthermore, an experimental setup with short pulses and access to observables, which becomes possible because of the sample's finite size, offers novel possibilities to investigate non-equilibrium dynamics of plasmas. Here, the formation, excitation and relaxation of nanoplasmas in rare-gas clusters driven by strong pulses from freeelectron lasers (FELs) with photon frequencies in the range of about 10 up to 100 eV as currently available at FLASH are discussed. It is the unique combination of brilliant, tunable and short-pulse radiation in this machine and upcoming X-ray FELs which makes such studies feasible.

Mots clés: 36.40.Gk; 31.70.Hq; 31.15.xv; 41.60.Cr

Ulf Saalmann. Cluster nanoplasmas in strong FLASH pulses: formation, excitation and relaxation. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2010, 43 (19), pp.194012. ⟨10.1088/0953-4075/43/19/194012⟩. ⟨hal-00569846⟩