Numerical simulation and experimental investigation of the production of multiply charged ions by the ionization of benzene cluster with a moderate intensity laser

Abstract

The production of multiply charged ions by the interaction of intense femtosecond laser with clusters has been widely reported. Recently, many groups discovered the multiply charged ions when the cluster was irradiated by a 532 nm nanosecond laser with the intensity as low as 1010 W/cm2. Although this interesting phenomenon could be explained by the mechanism of multiphoton ionization triggered-inverse bremsstrahlung heating-electron impact ionization, there is a lack of numerical simulation to explain the generation of multiply charged ions. In this paper, numerical simulation is performed to study the generation process of multiply charged ions in the moderate intensity laser. Firstly, the electron energy is calculated according to ponderomotive potential. Secondly, the cross section of electron impact ionization is calculated on the basis of Lotz formula. Finally, the evolution of multiply charged ions in the cluster is calculated with the kinetic reaction rate equation. The effects of cluster size and electron density on multiply charged ions are investigated in detail. Simulation results show that the ionization process is completed and the balance among C2+, C3+ and C4+ is achieved in 0.7 ns. The relative intensity sequence of multiply charged ions is C2+ C3+ C4+, which is consistent with the experimental results. In addition, numerical simulation results show that the charge state of ions is increased with the increase of cluster size, which is consistent with the experimental results.