Evolution dynamics of charge state distribution in neon interaction with x-ray pulses of variant intensities and durations

The level population and charge state distribution (CSD) of the neon atomic system interacting with x-ray pulses of variant intensities and durations at a central photon energy of 1110 eV are investigated by solving the time-dependent rate equations. The laser beam has a circular spot size with a Gaussian intensity pattern and the time history of the intensity is represented by Gaussian distribution in time. As an example, the CSD as a function of time is given at different distances from the spot center for an x-ray beam of intensity 1.5 × 1017 W/cm2 and duration 75 fs (fs) for a spot size of 1 μm (full width at half maximum). The final CSD after averaging over the space and time is compared with a recent experiment and good agreement is found between the theory and experiment. Then systematic investigations are carried out to study the evolution of CSD with a wide range of intensity from 1.0 × 1015 W/cm2 to 1.0 × 1019 W/cm2 and duration from 30 fs to 100 fs. The results show that at intensities lower than 1.0 × 1015 W/cm2, the CSD shows a typical physical picture of weak x-ray photoionization of the neutral atomic neon. At higher intensity, i.e., larger than 5.0 × 1016 W/cm2, the dominant ionization stages are Ne7+ and Ne8+, while the fractions of ions in the Ne3+-Ne6+ stages are low for all laser durations and intensities.