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Phys. Rev. A 68, 065201 (2003) [4 pages]

Coulomb explosion of deuterium cationic clusters

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I. A. Howard1, J. A. Alonso2,3, N. H. March1,4, A. Rubio2,5, and C. Van Alsenoy6
1Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium
2Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
3Departmento de Física Teorica, Universidad de Valladolid, 47001 Valladolid, Spain
4Oxford University, Oxford, England
5Departamento de Física de Materiales, Universidad del País Vasco, and Centro Mixto CSIC/UPV, Paseo Manuel Lardizabal 3, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
6Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium

Received 11 August 2003; published 16 December 2003

The recent experiments of Zweiback et al. on deuterium clusters irradiated with intense laser beams yielded D-D fusion. This has motivated us to carry out quantum-chemical calculations on a number of deuterium clusters, both neutral and cationic. For doubly charged clusters, in particular D312+, and plainly for more highly charged assemblies, Coulomb explosion of the cluster is in evidence. The quantum-chemical results we present strongly suggest that fragmentation occurs with small groups of deuterium atoms breaking away from the main cluster, such as to leave both small and large fragments with a net charge not exceeding +|e|.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.065201
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.68.065201
PACS:
36.40.-c
 
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