Mutual attraction of laser beams in plasmas: braided light

The energy loss of slow ions during grazing scattering from a LiF(100) surface as a function of the projectile atomic number Z1 is observed to show oscillations similar to those occurring in metals. A model of stopping of ions in an electron gas where screening is calculated from density functional theory reproduces well the experimental data. The same model gives good agreement with the energy loss obtained in transmission experiments performed with H and He projectiles. Analysis of these results allows us to gain new insights in the stopping of slow ions in ionic crystals.