Low-Energy Electron Emission in the Strong-Field Ionization of Rare Gas Clusters

Abstract

Clusters and nanoparticles have been widely investigated to determine how plasmonic near fields influence the strong-field induced energetic electron emission from finite systems. We focus on the contrary, i.e., the slow electrons, and discuss a hitherto unidentified low-energy structure (LES) in the photoemission spectra of rare gas clusters in intense near-infrared laser pulses. For Ar and Kr clusters we find, besides field-driven fast electrons, a robust and nearly isotropic emission of electrons with <4 eV kinetic energies that dominates the total yield. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal a correlated few-body decay process involving quasifree electrons and multiply excited ions in the nonequilibrium nanoplasma that results in a dominant LES feature. Our results indicate that the LES emission occurs after significant nanoplasma expansion, and that it is a generic phenomenon in intense laser nanoparticle interactions, which is likely to influence the formation of highly charged ions.