Molecule without electrons: binding bare nuclei with strong laser fields

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Jun 20;90(24):243001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.243001. Epub 2003 Jun 16.

Abstract

We show how a carefully chosen combination of strong linearly and circularly polarized laser fields can bind two same-sign charges, not only suppressing their Coulomb repulsion in all three spatial dimensions, but also creating an effective attraction. As an example, we show how a molecule HD2+ stripped of both electrons can be kept bound by the laser fields.