Ionization Avalanching in Clusters Ignited by Extreme-Ultraviolet Driven Seed Electrons

Abstract

We study the ionization dynamics of Ar clusters exposed to ultrashort near- infrared (NIR) laser pulses for intensities well below the threshold at which tunnel ionization ignites nanoplasma formation. We find that the emission of highly charged ions up to Ar8+ can be switched on with unit contrast by generating only a few seed electrons with an ultrashort extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulse prior to the NIR field. Molecular dynamics simulations can explain the experimental observations and predict a generic scenario where efficient heating via inverse bremsstrahlung and NIR avalanching is followed by resonant collective nanoplasma heating. The temporally and spatially well-controlled injection of the XUV seed electrons opens new routes for controlling avalanching and heating phenomena in nanostructures and solids, with implications for both fundamental and applied laser-matter science.