What is Bond softening?

Bond softening is an effect of reducing the strength of a chemical bond by strong laser fields. To make this effect significant, the strength of the electric field in the laser light has to be comparable with the electric field the bonding electron "feels" from the nuclei of the molecule. Such fields are typically in the range of 1–10 V/Å, which corresponds to laser intensities 10–10 W/cm. Nowadays, these intensities are routinely achievable from table-top Ti:Sapphire lasers.