Interaction of ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses with atomic clusters

A fully relativistic particle-in-cell code is used to simulate atomic cluster explosions following the interaction with ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses, investigating the dynamics of a 1 mum hydrogen cluster explosion and providing information about the time-resolved position, momentum, and energy of electrons and ions, for different laser intensities. The results indicate that the mechanism responsible for cluster expansion is Coulombic explosion producing MeV ions and electrons. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.