FYI: they're beginning to discover that, as I have expressed several times here, you don't need to hit an atom with a sledgehammer to ionize it. Just a wee bit of energy at the right frequency and timing (phase).
http://phys.org/news/2012-11-supercharge-atoms-x-ray-laser.html Just as a stretched guitar string can vibrate and sustain a note, a specific tuning of the laser's properties can cause atoms and molecules to resonate. The resonance excites the atoms and causes them to shake off electrons at a rate that otherwise would require higher energies. While it is common knowledge that triggering resonances in atoms will affect their charged states, "it was not clear to anybody what a dramatic effect this could have in heavy atoms when they are being ionized by a source like LCLS," Rolles said. "It was the highest charge state ever observed with a single X-ray pulse, which shows that the existing theoretical approaches have to be modified." "Ultra-efficient ionization of heavy atoms by intense X-ray free-electron laser pulses" Abstract from published paper: http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2012.261.ht ml -Mark Iverson
