Frustration of direct photoionizations of rare gas clusters in intense extreme ultraviolet free-electron laser pulses

We performed a momentum imaging measurements of Ar clusters irradiated by extreme ultraviolet free electron laser pulses (61nm 1.3?1011W/cm2) for various cluster sizes. Dominant fragment ions were Ar+ and Ar2+ ions with significant kinetic energy (up to 40eV). This indicates that Ar clusters absorbed many photons, become highly ionized and finally dissociated into many fragments through Coulomb explosion. The size dependence of the ion kinetic energy distribution indicates that larger clusters significantly suffer from the frustration of direct photoelectron emissions and multiple ionizations.

[1]  A. Rudenko,et al.  Multi-coincidence ion detection system for EUV-FEL fragmentation experiments at SPring-8 , 2009 .

[2]  A. Rudenko,et al.  Frustration of direct photoionization of Ar clusters in intense extreme ultraviolet pulses from a free electron laser , 2009 .

[3]  T. Ishikawa,et al.  Cold-target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy for diagnostics of high harmonics of the extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser light source at SPring-8. , 2009, The Review of scientific instruments.

[4]  Makina Yabashi,et al.  Dead-time-free ion momentum spectroscopy of multiple ionization of Xe clusters irradiated by euv free-electron laser pulses , 2009 .

[5]  Chao Zhang,et al.  A compact free-electron laser for generating coherent radiation in the extreme ultraviolet region , 2008 .

[6]  J. Rost,et al.  Ionization of Clusters in Intense Laser Pulses through Collective Electron Dynamics. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[7]  Joachim Ullrich,et al.  Recoil-ion and electron momentum spectroscopy: reaction-microscopes , 2003 .

[8]  H. Wabnitz,et al.  Multiple ionization of atom clusters by intense soft X-rays from a free-electron laser , 2002, Nature.

[9]  Ottmar Jagutzki,et al.  Multiple hit read-out of a microchannel plate detector with a three-layer delay-line anode , 2001, 2001 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (Cat. No.01CH37310).

[10]  T. Ditmire,et al.  High-energy ions produced in explosions of superheated atomic clusters , 1997, Nature.

[11]  Snyder,et al.  Intense Field-Matter Interactions: Multiple Ionization of Clusters. , 1996, Physical review letters.

[12]  Hutchinson,et al.  Multi-keV Electron Generation in the Interaction of Intense Laser Pulses with Xe Clusters. , 1996, Physical review letters.

[13]  T. Möller,et al.  CLULU: An experimental setup for luminescence measurements on van der Waals clusters with synchrotron radiation , 1993 .

[14]  D. Meyerhofer,et al.  Tunneling ionization of noble gases in a high-intensity laser field. , 1989, Physical review letters.