Cooling dynamics of photoexcited C6(-) and C6H(-)

We report conclusive evidence of an efficient cooling mechanism via the electronic radiative transitions of hot small molecular anions isolated in vacuum. We stored C6(-) and C6H(-) in an ion storage ring and observed laser-induced electron detachment with delays up to several milliseconds. The terminal hydrogen atom caused a drastic change in the decay profiles. The decay of photoexcited C6H(-) is slow and nonexponential, which can be explained by depletion cooling, whereas that for C6(-) occurs extremely fast, on a time scale below 0.1 ms and can only be explained by electronic radiative cooling via low-lying electronic excited states.