Efficiency of dopant-induced ignition of helium nanoplasmas

Helium nanodroplets irradiated by intense near-infrared laser pulses ignite and form highly ionized nanoplasmas even at laser intensities where helium is not directly ionized by the optical field, provided the droplets contain a few dopant atoms. We present a combined theoretical and experimental st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2016-07, Vol.18 (7), p.73046
Main Authors: Heidenreich, A, Grüner, B, Rometsch, M, Krishnan, S R, Stienkemeier, F, Mudrich, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dopants
Droplets
Free electrons
Helium
helium nanodroplet
Ignition
Infrared lasers
molecular dynamics
nanoplasma
photoionization
Physics
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Summary:Helium nanodroplets irradiated by intense near-infrared laser pulses ignite and form highly ionized nanoplasmas even at laser intensities where helium is not directly ionized by the optical field, provided the droplets contain a few dopant atoms. We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the He nanoplasma ignition dynamics for various dopant species. We find that the efficiency of dopants to ignite a nanoplasma in helium droplets strongly varies and mostly depends on (i) the number of free electrons each dopant donates upon ionization, (ii) the pick-up process, and (iii) the hitherto unexplored effect of the dopant location in or on the droplet.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/18/7/073046