title: Anomalous ion charge distribution from cluster nanoplasmas.
abstract: In nearly all the intense laser experiments with nanoclusters, the key observation has been that immense ionization drives highly charged ions to highest energies while low charge ions, if any, have lower kinetic energies. We show experimental measurements that are contrary to this established notion. The active role of outer-ionized electrons in a multicluster interaction is shown to effectively reduce high charge ions to low charge states with no loss of momentum. The role of Rydberg excited clusters, intrinsic in dense cluster ensembles, is identified and a quantitative analysis is shown to comprehensively explain the anomalous charge distribution and ion energies observed in experiments.
authors.affiliation: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai-400005, India.
authors.forename: T Madhu
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Trivikram
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rajeev
authors.forename: K P M
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Rishad
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krishnamurthy