High-precision electron affinity of oxygen.

Negative ions are important in many areas of science and technology, e.g., in interstellar chemistry, for accelerator-based radionuclide dating, and in anti-matter research. They are unique quantum systems where electron-correlation effects govern their properties. Atomic anions are loosely bound systems, which with very few exceptions lack optically allowed transitions. This limits prospects for high-resolution spectroscopy, and related negative-ion detection methods. Here, we present a method to measure negative ion binding energies with an order of magnitude higher precision than what has been possible before. By laser-manipulation of quantum-state populations, we are able to strongly reduce the background from photodetachment of excited states using a cryogenic electrostatic ion-beam storage ring where keV ion beams can circulate for up to hours. The method is applicable to negative ions in general and here we report an electron affinity of 1.461 112 972(87) eV for 16O.

Mutual neutralisation of O+ with O-: investigation of the role of metastable ions in a combined experimental and theoretical study.

The mutual neutralisation of O+ with O- has been studied in a double ion-beam storage ring with combined merged-beams, imaging and timing techniques. Branching ratios were measured at the collision energies of 55, 75 and 170 (± 15) meV, and found to be in good agreement with previous single-pass merged-beams experimental results at 7 meV collision energy. Several previously unidentified spectral features were found to correspond to mutual neutralisation channels of the first metastable state of the cation (O+(2Do), τ ≈ 3.6 hours), while no contributions from the second metastable state (O+(2Po), τ ≈ 5 seconds) were observed. Theoretical calculations were performed using the multi-channel Landau-Zener model combined with the anion centered asymptotic method, and gave good agreement with several experimentally observed channels, but could not describe well observed contributions from the O+(2Do) metastable state as well as channels involving the O(3s 5So) state.

Operating a triple stack microchannel plate-phosphor assembly for single particle counting in the 12-300 K temperature range.

An assembly consisting of a stack of three microchannel plates (MCPs) and a phosphor screen anode has been operated over the temperature range from 300 to 12 K. We report on measurements at 6.4 kHz (using an alpha source) and with dark counts only (15 Hz). Without any particle source, the MCP bias current decreased by a factor of 2.1 x 10(3) when the temperature was lowered from 300 to 12 K. Using the alpha source, and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) to monitor the phosphor screen anode, we first observed an increase in the decay time of the phosphor from 12 to 45 mus when the temperature was decreased from 300 to 100 K while the decay time then decreased and reached a value of 5 mus at 12 K. The pulse height distribution from the PMT was measured between 300 and 12 K and shows a spectrum typical for a MCP phosphor setup at 300 K and 12 K but is strongly degraded for intermediate temperatures. We conclude that the present MCP-phosphor detector assembly is well suited for position-sensitive particle counting operation at temperatures down to at least 12 K even for count rates beyond 6 kHz. This result is crucial and an important part of ongoing developments of new instrumentation for investigations of, e.g., interactions involving complex molecular ions with internal quantum state control.