Energetics at extremes in Coulomb explosion of large finite systems

Novel features of the dynamics and energetics of clusters and nanodroplets driven by ultraintense, femtosecond, near-infrared laser pulses pertain to the establishment of energetic records for Coulomb explosion. Theoretical- computational studies demonstrated the attainment of table-top production of deuterons in the energy range of 1-10 MeV by extreme Coulomb explosion of deuterium nanodroplets/microdroplets with the initial size domain 100-1000 nm (number of constituents 5 × 10 ⁸-10 ¹¹), which were driven by superintense lasers with peak intensities of 10 ¹⁷-10 ²⁰ W cm ^-2. This ultrahigh energy range establishes an energetic record for chemical dynamics. New aspects of ultraintense laser-nanostructure interactions involve laser intensity attenuation within the nanodroplet/microdroplet, and a proper treatment of the coupled system with the nanostructure size being comparable to the laser wavelength. Attenuation effects determine an upper size limit of 1 μm of the nanodroplet/microdroplet for useful extreme Coulomb explosion with an energetic upper limit of 10 MeV for deuterons produced by this table-top process.