# Can a laser be designed to ionize muonic atoms so as to prevent a-sticking?

Muon catalyzed fusion is currently little more than a lab curiosity today in part because of how many hydrogen nuclei can be fused before the muon is carried away by an alpha particle. Deuterium+deuterium reactions are ten times more likely than deuterium tritium reactions to result in a muon sticking to a helium ion. I am wondering if some one can calculate the ionization energy needed to prevent that from happening and to speculate if a laser can be built to do it.

If it is possible, it may help pave the way to clean low-temperature fusion energy that produces more power than is used to make it.

-

For what it's worth (I cannot verify the claims): http://www.j.sinap.ac.cn/nst/EN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=448 (NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUES 25, 020201 (2014) - I guess this is a Chinese journal). Abstract: "Considering the mixture after muon-catalyzed fusion ($\mu$CF) reaction as overdense plasma, we analyze muon motion in the plasma induced by a linearly polarized two-colour laser, particularly, the effect of laser parameters on the muon momentum and trajectory. The results show that muon drift along the propagation of laser and oscillation perpendicular to the propagation remain after the end of the laser pulse. Under appropriate parameters, muon can go from the skin layer into field-free matter in a time period of much less than the pulse duration. The electric-field strength ratio or frequency ratio of the fundamental to the harmonic has more influence on muon oscillation. The laser affects little on other particles in the plasma. Hence, in theory, this work can avoid muon sticking to $\alpha$ effectively and reduce muon-loss probability in $\mu$CF."