Nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) is a theoretically envisioned yet experimentally unverified process that intricately links nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom. For nearly five decades, the experimental validation of NEEC has remained elusive, primarily hindered by challenges in excitation and detection methodologies. This study proposes a laser-based strategy for verifying NEEC, exploiting the isomeric excitation of the ${}^{235}\mathrm{U}$ nucleus within a laser-cluster interaction scheme. With proper laser parameters, NEEC overwhelmingly dominates, constituting over 99.9% of the isomeric excitation yield. The long lifetime of the ${}^{235}\mathrm{U}$ isomer allows detection without interfering atomic background. Additionally, distinctive dependencies of isomeric excitation yield on laser parameters provide further confirmation for the NEEC mechanism.

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• Coulomb excitation
• Electromagnetic transitions
• Isomer decays
• Photonuclear reactions
• A ≥ 220