High intensity femtosecond XUV pulse interactions with atomic clusters

High intensity femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulse interactions with large xenon clusters have been studied at a wavelength of 38 nm. XUV radiation approaching 1011 W/cm2 is produced by high-order-harmonic conversion from a 35 fs, near-infrared terawatt laser. Resulting ion spectra show high charge states with a hydrodynamic based energy distribution from cluster explosions. It is concluded that continuum lowering in the created cluster nanoplasma makes single photoionization to the high charge states possible. These experiments look toward high intensity cluster interaction experiments in the x-ray range on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) under development at SLAC.