Expansion of nanoplasmas and laser‐driven nuclear fusion in single exploding clusters

The expansion of laser‐irradiated clusters can be controlled by acting on the amount of energy delivered to the electrons. When increasing the electron energy, the expansion regime varies smoothly from a quasineutral, hydrodinamic‐like to a Coulomb explosion (CE), as revealed by self‐consistent kinetic analysis. A double‐pump irradiation scheme can produce hybrid expansion regimes wherein a slow hydrodynamic expansion is followed by a fast CE, leading to ion overtaking and producing multiple ion flows expanding with different velocities, which can lead to intracluster fusion reactions in homonuclear deuterium clusters.