Anisotropic Surface Broadening and Core Depletion during the Evolution of a Strong-Field Induced Nanoplasma.
Phys Rev Lett
; 129(7): 073201, 2022 Aug 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36018694
ABSTRACT
Strong-field ionization of nanoscale clusters provides excellent opportunities to study the complex correlated electronic and nuclear dynamics of near-solid density plasmas. Yet, monitoring ultrafast, nanoscopic dynamics in real-time is challenging, which often complicates a direct comparison between theory and experiment. Here, near-infrared laser-induced plasma dynamics in â¼600 nm diameter helium droplets are studied by femtosecond time-resolved x-ray coherent diffractive imaging. An anisotropic, â¼20 nm wide surface region, defined as the range where the density lies between 10% and 90% of the core value, is established within â¼100 fs, in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions. At longer timescales, however, the width of this region remains largely constant while the radius of the dense plasma core shrinks at average rates of ≈71 nm/ps along and ≈33 nm/ps perpendicular to the laser polarization. These dynamics are not captured by previous plasma expansion models. The observations are phenomenologically described within a numerical simulation; details of the underlying physics, however, remain to be explored.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Language:
En
Journal:
Phys Rev Lett
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos