ENERGETICS AND DYNAMICS OF COULOMB EXPLOSION OF HIGHLY-CHARGED CLUSTERS

Ultrafast femtosecond Coulomb explosion of charged homogeneous (Xe-n) and heterogeneous doped (HLArn) small and medium sized clusters (n<60) is studied resting on the picture of a vertical high-order multiphoto n ionization from the ground state nuclear configuration. The final av erage atomic velocity (simulated at constant charge) increases with in creasing the cluster size, and at constant cluster size increases line arly with the ion charge, in accord with the predictions of an analyti cal model. The linear dependence of the reciprocal explosion time on t he charge is also in accord with the analytical prediction. From the e nergetics of the Coulomb explosion (reflecting a probable initial atom ic distribution of the cluster size for small clusters); a nonvertical multiphoton ionization during the Coulomb explosion cannot be inferre d. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(97)01641-3].