Laser-cluster interaction: x-ray production by short laser pulses.
We investigate the heating of the quasifree electrons in large rare-gas clusters (N exceeding 10(5) atoms) by short laser pulses at moderate intensities (I approximately = 10(15) W cm(-2)). We identify elastic large-angle backscattering of electrons at ionic cores in the presence of a laser field as an efficient heating mechanism. Its efficiency as well as the effect of collective electron motion, electron-impact ionization, and cluster charging are studied employing a mean-field classical transport simulation. Results for the absolute x-ray yields are in surprisingly good quantitative agreement with recent experimental results.
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, A-1040 Vienna, Austria, EU. cornelia@concord.itp.tuwien.ac.at
Cornelia
C
Deiss
Nina
N
Rohringer
Joachim
J
Burgdörfer
Emily
E
Lamour
Christophe
C
Prigent
Jean-Pierre
JP
Rozet
Dominique
D
Vernhet