Negative ions are unique quantum systems where electron correlation plays a decisive role in determining their properties. The lack of optically allowed transitions prevents traditional optical spectroscopy and the electron affinity is, therefore, for most elements, the only atomic quantity that can be determined with high accuracy. In this work, we present a high-precision experimental determination of the electron affinity of cesium. A collinear laser-ion beam apparatus was used to investigate the partial photodetachment cross section for the cesium anion, leaving the neutral atom in the 6p 2P3/2 excited state. A resonance ionization scheme was used to obtain final-state selectivity, which enabled the investigation of a sharp onset of the cross section associated with a Wigner s-wave threshold behavior. The electron affinity was determined to be 0.471 598 3(38) eV.

We measured the spontaneous decays of internally hot copper and silver dimer anions, and , stored in one of the two ion-beam storage rings of the Double Electrostatic Ion Ring Experiment (DESIREE) at Stockholm University. A coincidence detection technique was utilized enabling essentially background-free measurements of -> Cu + Cu^- and -> Ag + Ag^- fragmentation rates. Furthermore, the total rates of neutral decay products (monomers and dimers) were measured and the relative contributions of fragmentation and electron emission ( -> Cu₂ + e^- and -> Ag₂ + e^-) were deduced as functions of storage time. Fragmentation is completely dominant at early times. However, after about 20 ms of storage, electron emission is observed and becomes the leading decay path after 100 ms for both dimer anions. The branching ratios between fragmentation and electron emission (vibrationally assisted autodetachment processes) are very nearly the same for and Ag-2 throughout the present storage cycle of 10 seconds. This is surprising considering the difference between the electron affinities of the neutral dimers, Cu₂ and Ag₂, and the difference between the and the dissociation energies.

We report on mutual neutralization measurements between 7Li+ and 1H- at effective center-of-mass collision energies in the range of 100 to 350 meV. We find that final states of lithium with principal quantum number n = 3 dominate with 3s separated from the unresolved 3p and 3d states. We measure the 3s branching fraction to be 0.665(12) at 100(16) meV and no significant dependence on collision energy is observed in the studied range. Comparing to previous results on mutual neutralization between 7Li+ and 2H- [G. Eklund et al., Phys. Rev. A 102, 012823 (2020)], we find that 7Li+ collisions with 1H- result in a significantly higher 3s branching fraction than collisions with 2H-. The difference is 0.087(14). The 3s branching fraction of 7Li+ + 1H- and the determined isotope difference are in agreement with results from extended full quantum calculations based on the same input data and numerical method as in Croft et al. [H. Croft, A. S. Dickinson, and F. X. Gadea, J. Phys. B 32, 81 (1999)]. These calculations reveal strong Stueckelberg oscillations of the 3s branching fraction for both isotopes.

By repeatedly probing the a¹Δ excited state and the X³Σ⁻ ground-state populations in a beam of CH⁻ ions stored in a cryogenic ion-beam storage ring for 100 s, we extract an intrinsic lifetime of 14.9±0.5 s for this excited state. This is far longer than all earlier experimental and theoretical results, exposing large difficulties in measuring and calculating slow decays and the need for benchmark quality experiments.

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.

We present experimental final-state distributions for Mg atoms formed in Mg++D− mutual neutralization reactions at center-of-mass collision energies of 59±12  meV by using the merged-beams method. Comparisons with available full-quantum results reveal large discrepancies and a previously underestimated total rate coefficient by up to a factor of 2 in the 0–1 eV (<104  K) regime. Asymptotic model calculations are shown to describe the process much better and we recommend applying this method to more complex iron group systems; data that is of urgent need in stellar spectral modeling.

The properties of atomic negative ions are to a large extent determined by electron-electron correlation which makes them an ideal testing ground for atomic many-body physics. In this paper, we present a detailed experimental and theoretical study of excited states in the negative ion of iridium. The ions were stored at cryogenic temperatures using the double electrostatic ion ring experiment facility at Stockholm University. Laser photodetachment was used to monitor the relaxation of three bound excited states belonging to the [Xe] 4f(14)5d(8)6s(2) ionic ground configuration. Our measurements show that the first excited state has a lifetime much longer than the ion-beam storage time of 1230 +/- 100 s. The binding energy of this state was measured to be 1.045 +/- 0.002 eV. The lifetimes of the second and third excited states were experimentally determined to be 133 +/- 10 and 172 +/- 35 ms, respectively. Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations were performed in order to extract binding energies and lifetimes. These calculations predict the existence of the third excited bound state that was detected experimentally. The computed lifetimes for the three excited bound states agree well with the experimental results and allow for a clear identification of the detected levels.

The present paper reports on a merged-beam experiment on mutual neutralization between Na+ and D-. For this experiment, we have used the DESIREE ion-beams storage-ring facility. The reaction products are detected using a position- and time-sensitive detector, which ideally allows for determination of the population of each individual quantum state in the final atomic systems. Here, the 4s, 3d, and 4p final states in Na are observed and in all cases the D atom is in its ground state 1s S-2. The respective branching fractions of the states populated in Na are determined by fitting results from a Monte Carlo simulation of the experiment to the measured data. The center-of-mass collision energy is controlled using a set of biased drift tubes, and the branching fractions are measured for energies between 80 meV and 393 meV. The resulting branching fractions are found to agree qualitatively with the only available theoretical calculations for this particular system, which are based on a multichannel Landau-Zener approach using dynamic couplings determined with a linear combination of atomic orbitals model.

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.

Advances in merged-beams instruments have allowed experimental studies of the mutual neutralization (MN) processes in collisions of both Li⁺ and Na⁺ ions with D⁻ at energies below 1 eV. These experimental results place constraints on theoretical predictions of MN processes of Li⁺ and Na⁺ with H⁻, important for non-LTE modeling of Li and Na spectra in late-type stars. We compare experimental results with calculations for methods typically used to calculate MN processes, namely the full quantum (FQ) approach, and asymptotic model approaches based on the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) and semiempirical (SE) methods for deriving couplings. It is found that FQ calculations compare best overall with the experiments, followed by the LCAO, and the SE approaches. The experimental results together with the theoretical calculations, allow us to investigate the effects on modeled spectra and derived abundances and their uncertainties arising from uncertainties in the MN rates. Numerical experiments in a large grid of 1D model atmospheres, and a smaller set of 3D models, indicate that neglect of MN can lead to abundance errors of up to 0.1 dex (26%) for Li at low metallicity, and 0.2 dex (58%) for Na at high metallicity, while the uncertainties in the relevant MN rates as constrained by experiments correspond to uncertainties in abundances of much less than 0.01 dex (2%). This agreement for simple atoms gives confidence in the FQ, LCAO, and SE model approaches to be able to predict MN with the accuracy required for non-LTE modeling in stellar atmospheres.