Propagation of Intense Short Laser Pulses in a Gas of Atomic Clusters

We present a model and numerical simulations for the propagation of intense short laser pulses in gases of atomic clusters. As the pulse propagates through the clusters, they absorb energy, expand and explode. The clustered gas thus acts as a medium with time dependent effective dielectric constant. A self-consistent model for the cluster expansion and the laser pulse propagation is developed. Self-focusing of the laser pulse, coupling of laser energy to clusters and the evolution of the pulse spectrum are studied for a laser-cluster system with typical laboratory parameters.