I have been looking at Holmlid’s work with fascination, but also misgivings. He is a very creative man with great visions, but perhaps his imagination carries him beyond what his experiments show. So, I prefer to focus on the basic observations: the observation of charged particles, some of more than 10 MeV, after exposure to focused laser pulses very close deuterium on an iron-oxide catalyst; the observation of heat close to break-even, and the formation of neutrons. He may have the answer to the world’s energy problems. Therefore, it is very important that his work be replicated. According to the videos at the ICCF-21 by Olafsson and Zeiner-Gundersen it took them months before they saw what Holmlid and his students saw. It is not quite clear what the problems were and how they were resolved.
I have proposed some very simple experiments which do not require very sophisticated equipment except access to a suitable neodynium-YAG pulsed laser (DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.26633.31840, DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.26032.23044/2). It is not necessary with a high vacuum, because both the Holmlid heat and neutron experiments were at deuterium pressures from 1 mbar to 500 mbar. I have proposed the use of potassium promoted iron-oxide catalyst and titanium deuteride, as Holmlid has suggested that the active component begins with “free” D atoms.
In view of the initial difficulties of Olafsson and Zeiner-Gundersen, these simple experiments are a long shot. However, a possible positive outcome would be extremely important.
