Interaction of the charged deuterium cluster D3+ with femtosecond laser pulses

A computational study of the dynamics of the charged deuterium trimer D-3(+) under irradiation by feratosecond laser pulses is presented. The computer simulations are carried out in the frame of a nonadiabatic, nonlinearized model of the coupled evolution of electrons and ions based on the time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). Several laser field parameters such as intensity, frequency, and polarization have been varied, and their effects on the excitation of the cluster have been analyzed. A proper choice of the laser parameters can be used to lead the trimer across one of the several excitation output channels, from a perturbative regime at low intensities to a nonlinear domain with the occurrence of Coulomb explosion at high intensities.