Effects of The Nanoplasma Electrons on Coulomb Explosion of Xenon Clusters

The traditional description of Coulomb explosion (CE) of multicharged clusters driven by ultraintense, near-infrared, femtosecond laser fields (peak intensities of 1015−4 × 1016) W cm−2 at pulse lengths of 25−230 fs) under the initial conditions of complete and vertical outer ionization is transcended in the presence of a nanoplasma within the cluster. Unique features of the energetics of CE of many-electron elemental Xen (n = 55−6099) clusters manifest the interrelations between electron dynamics of outer ionization and nuclear CE dynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations of high-energy electrons and ions focused on the cluster size and laser parameter domains, where the contribution of electron impact inner ionization is important, the population of the persistent nanoplasma is considerable, and the effects of the nanoplasma on CE nuclear dynamics and energetics are significant. Relations were established for the cluster size and the laser parameter dependence of CE energetic attributes, that is, the ave...