Intense Laser Radiation Interacting with Nano-Structured Matter

The interaction of an ultra-intense, ultra-short laser pulse with nano-rods is investigated. The nano-rods consist of two materials with different mass. The interaction leads to the ionisation of the nano-rods and their consecutive Coulomb explosion. A number of simulations are performed to understand the nonlinear optical properties of the electronic subsystem interacting with the driver laser. It is shown that the dynamics of the Coulomb explosions can be controlled by changing the cylinder radius, the cylinder density, the gap between the cylinders, and the laser parameters. The simulations are performed with the help of the plasma simulation code (PSC), which is a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code. The PSC solves the Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations that describes the time evolution of the particle distribution functions.