Hydrodynamic model for picosecond propagation of laser-created nanoplasmas

In the present paper we examine the feasibility of a hydrodynamic two-fluid approach to follow the expansion of spherically symmetric nanoplasma, without accounting for the impact ionization and three-body recombination processes at this stage. We compare our results with the corresponding molecular dynamics simulations. We show that all relevant information about the nanoplasma propagation can be extracted from hydrodynamic simulations at a significantly lower computational cost when compared to a molecular dynamics approach. Finally, we comment on the accuracy and limitations of our present model and discuss possible future developments of the two-step strategy.