Correlated detection of electrons and ions emitted from laser-induced nanoplasmas in doped helium nanodroplets in the single-shot single-cluster regime

Abstract

We present single-cluster single-shot correlated measurements of electron velocity-map images and ion time-of-flight traces from individual laser-induced nanoplasmas in xenon-doped helium nanodroplets. Simultaneous detection associates the ion composition, ion kinetic energies, and electron energies with the same nanoplasma event. The detected ion composition separates events into populations dominated by He+ mono-cations versus those dominated by He^{2+} di-cations, with markedly different ion energies and electron kinetic energies. The He+-dominated population correlates well with low electron kinetic energies (< 0.5 eV), whereas the distribution of maximum electron kinetic energies for the He^{2+}-dominated population shows a peak around 1 eV. Molecular dynamics simulations averaged over the focal volume suggest that local laser intensity contributes to this separation. These correlations provide single-event observables for classifying nanoplasmas and will support real-time shot-to-shot sorting in single-particle coherent diffractive imaging experiments.