Kinetic and Coulombic effects in the explosion dynamics of metal clusters in intense femtosecond laser fields - art. no. 043203

The coupled dynamics of electrons and ions in sodium clusters under irradia tion by strong femtosecond laser pulses is investigated within numerical si mulations. Electrons are described with the self-consistent semiclassical V lasov equation and ions are treated classically. The interplay between Coul omb forces and kinetic pressure in the dissociation process is analyzed. Th e transfer of energy from the electron to the ion system is also analyzed. We compare the ionization/excitation balance with that in peripheral collis ions of clusters with highly charged ions.