Fig. 1: Schematic of the experimental setup.
From: Enhanced sensitivity for electron affinity measurements of rare elements
a A continuous beam of Cl− anions produced by an ion source is accumulated in a He-filled Paul trap, from where anions are sent downstream in low-emittance bunches. After kinetic energy adjustment and isotope selection by time-of-flight, 35Cl− anions are stored in an MR-ToF device, where they can be illuminated by a collinear laser beam. Atoms produced by neutralization processes leave the MR-ToF instrument and are registered by a detector. b The cumulative signal of neutral particles impinging on the detector grows with storage time. By measuring the difference (yellow band) between the cumulated neutral atom counts per cycle with (red circles) and without (green squares) laser illumination, the laser-induced photodetachment signal is determined. Error bars represent 1σ uncertainty, and lines are guiding the eye.
