Explosions of water clusters in intense laser fields

Abstract

Energetic, highly charged oxygen ions O^q+ (q<~6), are copiously produced upon laser field-induced disassembly of highly charged water clusters, (H₂O)_n and (D₂O)_n, n~60, that are formed by seeding high-pressure helium or argon with water vapor. Ar_n clusters (n~40000) formed under similar experimental conditions are found to undergo disassembly in the Coulomb explosion regime, with the energies of Ar^q+ ions showing a q² dependence. Water clusters, which are argued to be considerably smaller in size, should also disassemble in the same regime, but the energies of fragment O^q+ ions are found to depend linearly on q which, according to prevailing wisdom, ought to be a signature of hydrodynamic expansion that is expected of much larger clusters. The implication of these observations on our understanding of the two cluster explosion regimes, Coulomb explosion and hydrodynamic expansion, is discussed. Our results indicate that charge state dependences of ion energy do not constitute an unambiguous experimental signature of cluster explosion regime.