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Spontaneous and photo-induced decay processes of HfF

Measurement of chemical species and temperature mapping in flames is essential to understanding the combustion process. Multiple cameras are conventionally employed for measurement in such scenarios making the experimental setup not only cost-intensive but also challenging. To circumvent this, structured illumination (SI)-based methods are reported for multispecies chemiluminescence (CL) imaging using a single camera. In this paper, we demonstrate four-channel SI-based imaging for simultaneous snapshot CH∗ and C2∗ CL imaging and two-color pyrometry for temperature profiles in a butane diffusion flame. We demonstrate our approach using individual species and multiple species imaging. Taking the advantage of the axisymmetric nature of the flame, the Abel transform is performed on the line-of-sight averaged images to obtain deconvoluted images. The deconvoluted maps of temperature are compared with the temperature data obtained by using a physical thermocouple probe.

Optical tweezers are tools made of light that enable contactless pushing, trapping, and manipulation of objects ranging from atoms to space light sails. Since the pioneering work by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s, optical tweezers have evolved into sophisticated instruments and have been employed in a broad range of applications in life sciences, physics, and engineering. These include accurate force and torque measurement at the femtonewton level, microrheology of complex fluids, single micro- and nanoparticle spectroscopy, single-cell analysis, and statistical-physics experiments. This roadmap provides insights into current investigations involving optical forces and optical tweezers from their theoretical foundations to designs and setups. It also offers perspectives for applications to a wide range of research fields, from biophysics to space exploration., Comment: 181 pages, 61 figures

The constructive interference of light reflecting on the inner surface of a dielectric sphere results in a rich Mie scattering spectrum. Each resonance can be understood through a quantum-mechanical analogy, while the structure of the full spectrum is predicted to be a series of Fano resonances. However, the overlap of all the different modes results in such a complex spectrum that an intuitive understanding of the full, underlying structure is still missing. Here we present a directional Mie spectrum obtained by selecting a particular polarization and direction of the scattering of levitating water droplets. We find a significantly simplified spectrum organized in distinct, consecutive Mie Fano Combs composed of equidistant resonances that smoothly evolve from wide Lorentzians into sharp Fano profiles. We then fully explain all these characteristics by expanding on the quantum-mechanical analogy. This makes it possible to understand Mie spectra intuitively without the need for computational simulations.

Selective laser photodetachment of anions is a novel technique for isobar suppression in Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). Ion-laser interaction times on the order of ms required for near-complete isobar suppression are achieved by retarding the ions in a gas-filled radio frequency quadrupole cooler. Inside this RFQ, the cooled anion beam is overlapped collinearly with an intense cw-laser beam. Within the Ion Laser InterAction Mass Spectrometry (ILIAMS) project at the University of Vienna, a dedicated injector beamline has been coupled to the VERA-AMS facility to explore and develop this method. In this work, experimental investigations on ion beam transmission, stability and elemental selectivity of the new setup are presented. A 532 nm laser at 10 W transmitted power provides suppression factors larger than ten orders of magnitude for S− and MgO− under AMS conditions with simultaneous beam transmission for the ions of interest of up to 80%. The excellent ion identification capabilities of the subsequent AMS system also facilitate the study of destruction and formation of molecular anions inside the ion cooler. These kinetic and chemical reactions with the buffer gas provide additional elemental selectivity in certain cases, whereas others constitute a source of background.

The evaporation of liquid droplets was measured using a counter-propagating optical trap where trapping is stable from 6 um down to complete evaporation. The droplets' Mie scattering was used to calculate their size as they evaporated exponentially during 5-10 s. Simultaneously, the scattering intensity was recorded and a full Whispering Gallery Mode spectrum with around 100 resonances was observed, providing an alternative higher resolution measurement of the evaporation process. Droplets of different solutions were readily evaporated at room temperature and pressure. Importantly, this technique imposes no special requirement on the environment. It could be expanded to study evaporations of other liquids or in different humidities, temperatures, and pressures.

The angular distributions of electrons ejected in laser photodetachment of the ${\mathrm{P}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ion have been studied in the photon energy range of 0.95--3.28 eV using a photoelectron spectrometer designed to accommodate a source consisting of collinearly overlapping photon and negative ion beams. We observe the value of the asymmetry parameter $\ensuremath{\beta}$ starting at zero near the threshold, falling to almost $\ensuremath{-}1$ about 0.5 eV above the threshold and eventually rising to a positive value. The experimental data has been fitted to a simplified model of the Cooper-Zare formula which yields a qualitative understanding of the quantum interference between the outgoing $s$ and $d$ waves representing the free electron. The present results are also compared with previous results for other elements involving $p$-electron photodetachment.

More than 100 years ago, Robert Millikan demonstrated the quantization of the electron using charged, falling droplets, but the statistical analysis on many falling droplets did not allow a direct visualization of the quantization of charge. Instead of letting the droplets fall, we have used optical levitation to create a single droplet version of Millikan’s experiment where the effects of a single electron removal can be observed by the naked eye and measured with a ruler. As we added charges to the levitated droplet, we observed that its equilibrium position jumped vertically in quantized steps. The discrete nature of the droplet’s jumps is a direct consequence of the single-electron changes in the charge on the droplet, and therefore clearly demonstrates the quantization of charge. The steps were optically magnified onto a wall and filmed. We anticipate that the video of these single electron additions can become a straightforward demonstration of the quantization of charge for a general audience.

Controlling the directionality of spin waves is a key ingredient in wave-based computing methods such as magnonics. In this paper, we demonstrate this particular aspect by using an all-optical point-like source of continuous spin waves based on frequency comb rapid demagnetization. The emitted spin waves contain a range of k-vectors and by detuning the applied magnetic field slightly off the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), we observe X-shaped caustic spin-wave patterns at $70^{\circ}$ propagation angles as predicted by theory. When the harmonic of the light source approaches theFMR, the caustic pattern gives way to uniaxial spin-wave propagation perpendicular to the in-plane component of the applied field. This field-controlled propagation pattern and directionality of optically emitted short-wavelength spin waves provide additional degrees of freedom when designing magnonic devices., 5 pages, 4 figures

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] 4f145d86s2 ionic ground configuration. Our measurements show that the first excited state has a lifetime much longer than the ion-beam storage time of 1230±100s. The binding energy of this state was measured to be 1.045±0.002eV. The lifetimes of the second and third excited states were experimentally determined to be 133±10 and 172±35ms, 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., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We have applied a tomographic imaging method to recreate the full three-dimensional distribution of photoelectrons produced in a strong-field photodetachment process. The method is general and can be applied to any laser polarization. This stands in contrast to traditional imaging inversion methods, such as Abel inversion, which require prior knowledge of the symmetries of the electron distribution and are therefore limited to experiments using linear or circular polarization. Our method is also useful in a situation where linear polarization is used, since it compensates for detector inhomogeneities by spreading the information on a larger detector surface. In addition, it facilitates a method to detect polarization defects. Measurements were made for photodetachment of ${\mathrm{Ag}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ at laser wavelengths of 1310 and 2055 nm, and were found to agree well with simulations in the strong field approximation. The data in the 1310 nm case revealed an unexpected asymmetry in the plane in which the laser polarization axis is rotated. Using a quasistationary quasienergy state model, a residual elliptical polarization of $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}=0.21\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$ consistently explains the observed asymmetry. We conclude that the method described in this paper has the potential to be applied in experiments where a more complete characterization of electron emission distributions is required.

The Gothenburg ANion Detector for Affinity measurements by Laser PHotodetachment (GANDALPH) has recently been built for measurements of electron affinities (EA) of radioisotopes. A first measurement campaign is aimed towards the determination of the EA of astatine, the rarest naturally occurring element on earth. In this work we present several upgrades of GANDALPH which have been implemented in order to facilitate EA measurements of radioisotopes where only low intensity ion beams (< 1pA) can be produced.

Molecular beams injected into the ISOLDE Radio-Frequency Quadrupole cooler and buncher (RFQcb), ISCOOL, have been studied under varying conditions using a new Time-of-Flight (ToF) detector. When a beam of molecules is injected into the RFQcb and interacts with the buffer gas, collisional dissociation processes may occur. In this study, two different beams of molecules, CO+ and N 2 + , were separately injected into ISCOOL, and two different buffer gases (pure helium or a 90:10 mixture of helium and neon) were used. The radio-frequency of the RFQcb was varied as the molecules, along with the fragments from the dissociation processes, were extracted from ISCOOL and studied using the new Time-of-Flight detector. The main finding of this work is that the rates for molecular dissociation within ISCOOL were very small for both CO+ and N 2 + , with the largest rates found for CO+.

The spin part of the angular momentum of light can cause a birefringent particle to spin around its axis, while having no effect on a nonbirefringent particle. The orbital part of light’s angular momentum, on the other hand, can cause both birefringent and nonbirefringent particles to orbit around the axis of a light beam. In this paper, we demonstrate that nonbirefringent particles can also be made to spin around their axis when trapped in an optical vortex beam. The rotation of the particle depends on the ratio of the size of the particle and the diameter of the laser beam in which the particle is trapped. It can therefore be controlled by varying the position of the particle with respect to the focal point of the laser beam. The rotational frequency can also be controlled by changing the polarization state of the beam, since spin–orbit coupling affects the total angular momentum experienced by the trapped particle. The motion of the trapped particle is detected by a photodiode and a high-speed camera. Most microparticles found in nature are nonbirefringent, and the method presented in this paper will therefore open up new applications for optically induced rotations.

10.1119/1.5007738.1We describe an experimental system based on optical levitation of an oil droplet. When combined with an applied electric field and a source of ionizing radiation, the setup permits the investigation of physical phenomena such as radiation pressure, light diffraction, the motion of a charged particle in an oscillating electric field, and the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter. The trapping occurs by creating an equilibrium between a radiation pressure force and the force of gravity. We have found that an oil droplet can be trapped for at least nine hours. The system can be used to measure the size and total electric charge on the trapped droplet. The intensity of the light from the trapping laser that is scattered by the droplet is sufficient to allow the droplet to be easily seen with the naked eye, covered by laser alignment goggles. When oscillating under the influence of an ac electric field, the motion of the droplet can be described as that of a driven, damped harmonic o...

In the present paper we describe a newly designed collinear photoelectron spectrometer for angular distribution measurements. We will henceforth refer to this instrument by the acronym PEARLS (PhotoElectron Angle-Resolved Linear Spectrometer). The design was motivated by the desire to collect electrons emitted from an extended linear source consisting of collinear photon and ion beams at a synchrotron radiation site. The electrons could be produced in either photoionization or photodetachment events. The primary advantage of a collinear beams geometry is that the effective interaction volume can be made much larger than that obtainable with a crossed beams geometry, which has been used in many earlier photoelectron spectroscopic studies. The present apparatus is capable of collecting electrons over a beam source length of 22 cm. The electrons are detected using Channel Electron Multipliers (CEMs). There are 4 detector planes placed perpendicular to the direction of the beam source, where each plane contains 4 CEMs. The use of all 4 detector planes with a total of 16 CEMs enhances the photoelectron signal, which is important at a synchrotron radiation site where the photon flux is typically low. If photoelectrons of different energies are emitted, the design allows for electrostatic energy analyzers to be placed in front of the CEMs. We have performed a photodetachment experiment to demonstrate the functionality of the PEARLS apparatus using a pulsed laser as the photon source. In particular, we have measured the angular distribution of photoelectrons ejected from Ag- at two different photon energies.

The Ion Laser InterAction Setup (ILIAS) project at the University of Vienna aims at the exploration of negative ion beam filtering by selective laser photodetachment for applications in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). A gas-filled radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) is used to decelerate and cool negative atomic and molecular ion beams with intensities of up to several hundred nA, and overlap them collinearly with a continuous wave (cw) laser beam. Ion-laser interaction times ranging from 500 μs to several ms allow for highly efficient, selective photodetachment depletion of disturbing ion species within these beams. The elemental selectivity of this technique is based on the differences in electron affinities, and therefore does not depend on relative differences in atomic numbers. It may therefore provide sufficient isobar suppression for new trace isotopes, which are not accessible with existing AMS techniques. The ILIAS RFQ cooler was characterized at a purpose-built test bench with respect to ion beam transmission, ion cooling capabilities and ion residence times as a function of injected ion current to assess its suitability for future AMS use. A 63 Cu − test beam of 600 nA was photodetached with more than 99.999% efficiency with a 532 nm laser at 10.8 W power. At the same time, ions of interest having electron affinities higher than the photon energy passed the cooler unaffected. Total ion losses were thus found to be below 50% of the sputter source output. Finally, first photodetachment experiments in connection with 26 Al detection demonstrated selective isobar suppression of MgO − vs. AlO − by more than 4 orders of magnitude. Currently, the RFQ cooler is moved to a new injector beamline at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) for first applications of this novel technique at a state-of-the-art AMS facility.

Synopsis We have studied the stabilities of small carbon dianion clusters, C n 2 − (n = 7 – 11) in the cryogenic electrostatic ion storage ring, DESIREE. We observe spontaneous electron emission for tens of milliseconds, where dianions containing an even number of carbons decay slower in comparison to their neighbouring cluster sizes. For all the systems considered here, we find that there is a component which is stable at least on the time scales of hundreds of milliseconds.

Synopsis Astatine is a promising candidate for targeted alpha therapy in nuclear medicine. However, due to its scarce nature, some of its fundamental properties that determine its chemical characteristics such as the electron affinity, the binding erergy of the additional electron in a negative ion, are still unknown. Here we present the method and results of the first measurement of the electron affinity of astatine, performed with the Gothenburg ANion Detector for Affinity measurements by Laser PHotodetachment (GANDALPH) at CERN-ISOLDE.

An overview of recent experimental results of studies of negative atomic and molecular ions in the Double ElectroStatic Ion-Ring ExpEriment, DESIREE is given. Metastable level lifetimes in atomic negative ions have been measured by time-dependent laser photodetachment. Rotational relaxation of diatomic anions is studied by near-threshold photodetachment. Spontaneous decays of small metal cluster anions by electron emission and fragmentation is studied with decay-channel specificity. Finally, mutual neutralisation of pairs of negative and positive ions has been investigated with initial and final state selectivity.

Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a radiationless distance-dependent transfer of energy from an excited donor fluorophore to an acceptor fluorophore. This radiationless interaction of a donor-acceptor pair through resonance is observed by an increase/decrease in the acceptor/donor fluorescence intensity, respectively. Here we present preliminary results on the fluorescence spectra of optically levitated micro-droplets doped with two different dyes that works as FRET pair. The laser light used for levitation (λ=660 nm) passes through a telecentric system of lenses to form a controllable double optical trap system. Micrometer sized droplets are produced using two on-demand piezo-driven dispensers. This allows independent trapping of differently dyed droplets in two traps where a collision between the droplets can be induced by moving the trap positions. The dye molecules mix when two droplets collide and coalesce. The emission spectrum obtained when the droplets are illuminated with laser having a wavelength of 532 nm is observed with a spectrometer which can record up to 26,000 spectra per second. We compare the results with the spectra taken from the same solutions in a cuvette. The results indicate that we are able to observe the FRET effect in single droplets with an exposure time as short as 100 µs. This spectroscopic investigation is an ongoing research project with the long-term goal to investigate environmental effects of aerosols in the atmosphere.

An experimental and theoretical study of the single photoionization cross section of the P+ cation of phosphorus is presented. Photoionization (PI) cross sections are instrumental for the determination of abundances in the interstellar medium. The experiment was performed by merging an ion beam with a photon beam. The photon beam was nearly monochromatic and had an energy resolution of 24 meV. Calculations were carried out using the Breit–Pauli R-matrix method. The combined study was developed in the photon energy interval from 18 eV (68.9 nm) to 50 eV (24.8 nm). Comparison between the measured and the calculated cross section shows good agreement in general and identifies features of the process and existence of states in the experimental beam. The present results should provide for more accurate modeling of P+.

Brillouin light scattering (BLS) microscopy is a well established and powerful technique to study acoustic and magnetic excitations in the frequency domain with sub-micron spatial resolution. Many other spectroscopic techniques have benefited from the introduction of femtosecond laser sources to optically pump and stimulate the sample under investigation. In BLS microscopy, the use of femtosecond lasers as the excitation source introduces several challenges, primarily since the measured frequency shift is small and the signal levels are weak due to the low duty cycle of typical femtosecond lasers. Here we present a method to evade these challenges. A strong enhancement of the weak scattering amplitude on selected modes is observed by pumping the sample with a high repetition rate frequency comb laser source. The laser beam can be focused to the diffraction limit, providing a micron pumping area. We can thus preserve the innate high frequency and spatial resolution of BLS microscopy. Furthermore, we are able to induce a point-like source of mode-selected elementary excitations which propagate away from the pumping spot. We conclude that we have demonstrated frequency comb pumped BLS microscopy as an attractive tool for studies of ultrafast induced laser dynamics directly in the frequency domain.

The work presents an experiment that allows the study of many fundamental physical processes, such as photon pressure, diffraction of light or the motion of charged particles in electrical fields. In this experiment, a focused laser beam pointing upwards levitate liquid droplets. The droplets are levitated by the photon pressure of the focused laser beam which balances the gravitational force. The diffraction pattern created when illuminated with laser light can help measure the size of a trapped droplet. The charge of the trapped droplet can be determined by studying its motion when a vertically directed electrical field is applied. There are several reasons motivating this experiment to be remotely controlled. The investments required for the setup exceeds the amount normally available in undergraduate teaching laboratories. The experiment requires a laser of Class 4, which is harmful to both skin and eyes and the experiment uses voltages that are harmful.

We demonstrate sustained coherent emission of spin waves in NiFe films using rapid demagnetization from high repetition rate femtosecond laser pulse trains. As the pulse separation is shorter than the magnon decay time, magnons having a frequency equal to a multiple of the 1 GHz repetition-rate are coherently amplified. Using scanning micro-Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) we observe this coherent amplification as strong peaks spaced 1 GHz apart. The BLS counts vs. laser power exhibit a stronger than parabolic dependence consistent with counts being proportional to the square of the magnetodynamic amplitude, and the demagnetization pulse strength being described by a Bloch law. Spatial spin wave mapping demonstrates how both localized and propagating spin waves can be excited, and how the propagation direction can be directly controlled. Our results demonstrate the versatility of BLS spectroscopy for rapid demagnetization studies and enable a new platform for photo-magnonics where sustained coherent spin waves can be utilized., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We discovered that when a pair of small particles is optically levitated, the particles execute a dance whose motion resembles the orbits of balls being juggled. This motion lies in a plane perpendicular to the polarization of the incident light. We ascribe the dance to a mechanism by which the dominant force on each particle cyclically alternates between radiation pressure and gravity as each particle takes turns eclipsing the other. We explain the plane of motion by considering the anisotropic scattering of polarized light at a curved interface., 5 pages, 5 figures, 7 supplementary videos

Laser photodetachment is the process when the extra electron of a negative ion is removed by means of laser radiation. This can happen only if the photon energy is larger than the electron affinity of the ion. The process can be used in mass spectrometry to selectively suppress unwanted isobars, provided that the electron affinity of the unwanted isobar is lower than that of the isobar under investigation. At the Ion Laser InterAction Setup (ILIAS) at the University of Vienna laser photodetachment of negative atomic and molecular ions is studied and its applicability for selective isobar suppression in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is evaluated. The setup provides mass separated beams of negative ions with energies up to 30 keV. Negative ions are produced in a Middleton type cesium sputter ion source, mass selected and overlapped with a strong continuous wave laser beam. In order to extend the interaction time of ions and laser, the ion beam is decelerated to thermal energies in a gas-filled radio frequency quadrupole cooler. For an appropriate choice of the photon energy, unwanted isobars are neutralized while the isobar of interest is unaffected and remains negatively charged. A description of the ILIAS setup and results from the commissioning phase of the RFQ cooler are presented. Up to 8% ion beam transmission could be achieved after a recent redesign of the extraction system. Furthermore first results of photodetachment experiments of 63Cu− within the RFQ cooler are presented.

A scheme is presented for pulsing of a cesium sputter negative ion source by periodically switching on and off the high voltage driving the sputtering process. We demonstrate how the pulsed ion beam can be used in combination with a pulsed laser (6 ns pulse length) that has a 10 Hz repetition rate to study the photodetachment process, where a negative ion is neutralized due to the absorption of a photon. In such experiments, where the ion beam is used only for a small fraction of the time, we show that the pulsed mode operation can increase the lifetime of a cathode by two orders of magnitude as compared with DC operation. We also investigate how the peak ion current compares with the ion current obtained when the source is run in a DC mode. We find that the peak current in the pulsed mode is strongly dependent on the ion species. In some cases, we observed a strong enhancement, whereas others showed only a moderate enhancement, or even a decrease, in the peak current. We conclude that the pulsed mode operation can be of great value when the negative ion to be investigated requires cathodes that have short lifetimes, expensive materials, or those with relatively small ion beam yields, in the latter case limited to elements with large enhancement factors.

Synopsis Anions of iridium were stored in the cryogenic storage ring, DESIREE [1, 2, 3] and investigated using laser photodetachment. The ions were stored for up to 2000 seconds and the relaxation of several metastable states were studied by selecting different photon energies. The threshold of the previously not observed 3P2 level is located and the lifetime of this sate is found to be longer than the storage time of the ion beam. We also find that a state exists higher in energy than the previously known level with a lifetime in the range of hundreds of milliseconds.

Synopsis A refined Resonant Ionization Spectroscopy (RIS) scheme for high resolution Laser Photodetachment Threshold Spectroscopy (LPTS). In this work the scheme is used to measure the electron affinity of cesium.

The feasibility of using laser photodetachment as a means for isobar suppression in accelerator mass spectrometry has been investigated for the special case of HfF 5 − /WF 5 − . A method for absolute photodetachment cross section measurements was applied and the cross sections of tungsten pentafluoride and hafnium pentafluoride negative ions were measured. The measurements indicate that the photodetachment cross section for WF 5 − is at least 100 times larger than for HfF 5 − at the wavelength of the fourth harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser at 266 nm. The absolute cross section for WF 5 − at this photon energy was found to be (2.8 ± 0.3) × 10 −18 cm 2 , while an upper limit of 2 × 10 −20 cm 2 was obtained for the HfF 5 − cross section. The measured cross sections indicate that an optical filtering scheme for isobar suppression in accelerator mass spectrometry for the case of Hf 182 should be feasible.

We report on an experimental investigation of the tumbling of microrods in the shear flow of a mi- crochannel (dimensions: 40 mm × 2. 5m m× 0.4 mm). The rods are 20-30µm long and their diameters are of the order of 1µm. Images of the centre-of-mass motion and the orientational dynamics of the rods are recorded using a microscope equipped with a CCD camera. A motorised microscope stage is used to track individual rods as they move along the channel. Automated image analysis determines the position and orientation of a tracked rod in each video frame. We find different behaviours, depending on the particle shape, its initial position, and orientation. First, we observe periodic as well as aperiodic tumbling. Second, the data show that different tumbling trajectories exhibit different sensitivities to external perturbations. These observations can be explained by slight asymmetries of the rods. Third, we observe that after some time, initially periodic trajectories lose their phase. We attribute this to drift of the centre of mass of the rod from one to another streamline of the channel flow.

International audience; The first experimental investigation of the electron affinity (EA) of a radioactive isotope has been conducted at the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility. The EA of the radioactive iodine isotope (128)I (t (1/2) = 25 min) was determined to be 3.059 052(38) eV. The experiment was conducted using the newly developed Gothenburg ANion Detector for Affinity measurements by Laser PHotodetachment (GANDALPH) apparatus, connected to a CERN-ISOLDE experimental beamline. (128)I was produced in fission induced by 1.4 GeV protons striking a thorium/tantalum foil target and then extracted as singly charged negative ions at a beam energy of 20 keV. Laser photodetachment of the fast ion beam was performed in a collinear geometry inside the GANDALPH chamber. Neutral atoms produced in the photodetachment process were detected by allowing them to impinge on a glass surface, creating secondary electrons which were then detected using a channel electron multiplier. The photon energy of the laser was tuned across the threshold of the photodetachment process and the detachment threshold data were fitted to a Wigner law function in order to extract the EA. This first successful demonstration of photodetachment at an isotope separator on line facility opens up the opportunity for future studies of the fundamental properties of negatively charged radioactive isotopes such as the EA of astatine and polonium.

Recent progress with compact ionization chambers has opened new possibilities for isobar suppression in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Separation of 36 Cl ( t 1/2 = 0.30 Ma) at natural isotopic levels from its stable isobar 36 S became feasible at particle energies of 24 MeV, which are also accessible for medium-sized tandem accelerators with 3 MV terminal voltage like VERA (Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator). Investigations with an ionization chamber revealed how physics favors isobar separation even at energies below the maximum of the Bragg curve. The strong energy focusing effect at high energy losses reduces energy straggling significantly and isobar separation steadily increases up to almost full energy loss. With an optimized detection setup, sulfur suppression factors of 2 × 10 4 have been achieved. Refraining from the additional use of degrader foils has the benefit of high transmission to the detector (∼16%), but requires a low sulfur output from the ion source. Therefore several backing materials have been screened for sulfur content. The dependence of the sulfur output on the AgCl sample size has been investigated as well. Precision and accuracy have been thoroughly assessed over the last two years. Since drifts in the spectra are efficiently corrected by monitoring the position of the 36 S peak, the reproducibility for high ratio samples ( 36 Cl/Cl > 10 −12 ) is better than 2%. Our blank value of 36 Cl/Cl ≈ (5 ± 5) × 10 −16 is competitive to other labs. 36 Cl has become a routine AMS-isotope at VERA. Recently we also explored novel techniques for additional sulfur suppression already in the ion source. While results with a small gas reaction cell in front of the sputter target were discouraging, a decrease in the sulfur/chlorine ratio by one order of magnitude was achieved by directing 300 mW continuous wave laser beam at 445 nm towards the cathode in the ion source.