Electron and nuclear dynamics of molecular clusters in ultraintense laser fields. III. Coulomb explosion of deuterium clusters

The energetics and temporal dynamics of Coulomb explosion of molecular clusters of deuterium in ultraintense laser fields, were theoretically and computationally studied. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate the electron dynamics of outer cluster ionization and nuclear dynamics of Coulomb explosion. The predicted anisotropy of the D⁺ ion energies in the Coulomb explosion at I=10¹⁸W cm^-2 was in accord with the experiment. The effect of the laser pulse shape on the energetics of Coulomb explosion revealed quantitative characteristics of electron and nuclear dynamics in the coupled laser-cluster system.