We have investigated the threshold of photodetachment of Li^- leading to the formation of the residual Li atom in the $2p ^2P$ state. The excited residual atom was selectively photoionized via an intermediate Rydberg state and the resulting Li^+ ion was detected. A collinear laser-ion beam geometry enabled both high resolution and sensitivity to be attained. We have demonstrated the potential of this state selective photodetachment spectroscopic method by improving the accuracy of Li electron affinity measurements an order of magnitude. From a fit to the Wigner law in the threshold region, we obtained a Li electron affinity of 0.618 049(20) eV.
The electron affinity of tellurium has been determined to 1.970 876(7) eV. The threshold for photodetachment of Te^-(^{2} P_{3/2}) forming neutral Te in the ground state was investigated by measuring the total photodetachment cross section using a collinear laser-ion beam geometry. The electron affinity was obtained from a fit to the Wigner law in the threshold region.
Today, the electron affinity is experimentally well known for most of the elements and is a useful guideline for developing ab initio computational methods. However, the measurements of isotope shifts on the electron affinity are limited by both resolution and sensitivity. In this context, theory eventually contributes to the knowledge and understanding of atomic structures, even though correlation plays a dominant role in negative ions properties and, particularly, in the calculation of the specific mass shift contribution. The present study solves the longstanding discrepancy between calcula…
The specific mass shift in the electron affinity between ^{35}Cl and ^{37}Cl has been determined by tunable laser photodetachment spectroscopy to be -0.51(14) GHz. The isotope shift was observed as a difference in the onset of the photodetachment process for the two isotopes. In addition, the electron affinity of Cl was found to be 29138.59(22) cm^{-1}, giving a factor of 2 improvement in the accuracy over earlier measurements. Many-body calculations including lowest-order correlation effects demonstrates the sensitivity of the specific mass shift and show that the inclusion of higher-order co…
The electron affinities eA(S) are measured for the two isotopes 32S and 34S (16752.9753(41) and 16752.9776(85) cm-1, respectively). The isotope shift in the electron affinity is found to be positive, eA(34S)-eA(32S) = +0.0023(70) cm-1, but the uncertainty allows for the possibility that it may be either "normal" (eA(34S) > eA(32S)) or "anomalous" (eA(34S) < eA(32S)). The isotope shift is estimated theoretically using elaborate correlation models, monitoring the electron affinity and the mass polarization term expectation value. The theoretical analysis predicts a very large specific mass shift…
Core-polarization interactions are investigated in low-energy electron elastic scattering from the atoms In,Sn,Eu,Au and At through the calculation of their electron affinities. The complex angular momentum method wherein is embedded the vital electron-electron correlations is used. The core-polarization effects are studied through the well investigated rational function approximation of the Thomas-Fermi potential,which can be analytically continued into the complex plane. The EAs are extracted from the large resonance peaks in the calculated low-energy electron atom scattering total cross sec…
Theoretical calculations based on the Dirac--Coulomb--Breit relativistic coupled cluster method have been carried out for the electron affinities and ionization potentials of the superheavy element nihonium (Nh) and its lighter homologues In and Tl. The In and Tl calculations are in agreement with measurement within uncertainties. For Nh, where experiment is yet unknown, we predict the ionization potential of 7.569(48) eV and electron affinity of 0.776(30) eV.
The electron affinity (EA) of superheavy element Og is calculated by the use of the relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster (FSCC) and configuration interaction methods. The FSCC cluster operator expansion included single, double, and triple excitations treated in a non-perturbative manner. The Gaunt and retardation electron-electron interactions are taken into account. Both methods yield the results that are in agreement with each other. The quantum electrodynamics correction to EA is evaluated using the model Lamb-shift operator approach. The electron affinity of Og is obtained to be 0.076(4…
One of the most important properties influencing the chemical behavior of an element is the energy released with the addition of an extra electron to the neutral atom, referred to as the electron affinity (EA). Among the remaining elements with unknown EA is astatine, the purely radioactive element 85. Astatine is the heaviest naturally occurring halogen and its isotope $^{211}$At is remarkably well suited for targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer. With the At$^-$ anion being involved in many aspects of current astatine labelling protocols, the knowledge of the electron affinity of this elem…
We investigate the (0001) surface of single crystal quartz with a submonolayer of Rb adsorbates. Using Rydberg atom electromagnetically induced transparency, we investigate the electric fields resulting from Rb adsorbed on the quartz surface, and measure the activation energy of the Rb adsorbates. We show that the adsorbed Rb induces a negative electron affinity (NEA) on the quartz surface. The NEA surface allows low energy electrons to bind to the surface and cancel the electric field from the Rb adsorbates. Our results are important for integrating Rydberg atoms into hybrid quantum systems a…
Using the COLTRIMStechnique, scattering angle differential cross sections for single and double electron capture in collisions of protons and $He\sp{1,2+}$ projectiles with helium atoms for incident energies of $60-630 keV/u$ are measured. We also report new theoretical results obtained by means of four-body one-channel distorted wave models (CDW-BFS, CDW-BIS and BDW), and find mixed agreement with the measured data.
Atomic negative ions are fragile quantum systems in which correlation among the valence electrons plays a very important role. For doubly excited states correlation becomes dominant. Photodetachment is the process where a negative ion absorbs a photon and as a consquence ejects the outermost electron. A new detection scheme has been developed. The residual atom of a photodetachment is state selectively ionised by resonance ionisation spectroscopy. Investigations of the photodetachment threshold of tellurium with neutral particle detection yielded an electron affinity of 1589618(5) m^-1. With s…
Within the Dirac- and Lorentz-bubble potential models an electronic structure of the doubly-charged negative ion has been studied by a variational method. It is shown that even in the first approximation of this method when a trial wave function of the two electrons is represented as a product of one-electron functions the total energy of the system is negative, a manifestation of the existence of a stable state of the doubly-charged negative ion in these models. The second electron affinity of C60 according to estimation is about 1 eV. The photodetachment cross sections of this ion have been …
The Cold-target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) has been employed to study the single-electron capture processes in collisions of N3+ ions with He atoms at an impact energy of 30 keV. The relative differential cross sections for the capture to different orbitals of N3+ ions are obtained and are compared with other experiments at low energy. The predictions of the molecular Columbic barrier model have been made. From the longitudinal momentum spectrum of recoil ions, the different electronic configuration was identified and the metastable projectile ions were distinguished. The sing…
The complex angular momentum (CAM) calculated low-energy 0 < E < 5 eV electron elastic total cross section (TCS) for In is benchmarked through its recently measured electron affinity (Walter et al, Phys. Rev. A 82, 032507 (2010)). The TCSs for Tl and Ga atoms are then calculated using the CAM method. From the dramatically sharp resonances in the TCSs binding energies for Tl^{-} and Ga^{-} negative ions formed during the collisions are extracted and compared with existing values. Three stable bound negative ions of Tl are predicted.
The pronounced enhancement of the effective mass is the primary phenomenon associated with strongly correlated electrons. In the presence of local moments, the large effective mass is thought to arise from Kondo coupling, the interaction between itinerant and localised electrons. However, in d electron systems, the origin is not clear because of the competing Hund's rule coupling. Here we experimentally address the microscopic origin for the heaviest d fermion in a vanadium spinel LiV2O4 having geometrical frustration. Utilising orbital-selective 51V NMR, we elucidate the orbital-dependent loc…
We experimentally demonstrate a detection scheme suitable for state analysis of single optically trapped atoms in less than 1 μs with an overall detection efficiency η exceeding 98%. The method is based on hyperfine-state-selective photoionization and subsequent registration of the correlated photoion-electron pairs by coincidence counting via two opposing channel electron multipliers. The scheme enables the calibration of absolute detection efficiencies and might be a key ingredient for future quantum information applications or precision spectroscopy of ultracold atoms.
