Threshold Photodetachment Spectroscopy of the Positronium Negative Ion

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 Aug 7;125(6):063001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.063001.

Abstract

Threshold photodetachment spectroscopy of the positronium negative ion has been accomplished for the first time employing an efficient source of the ions and photodetachment techniques combined with a tunable optical parametric oscillator and amplifier laser. The photodetachment threshold, corresponding to the electron affinity of positronium (1^{3}S_{1}), was determined to be 326.88±0.09(stat)±0.10(syst) meV by laser photodetachment threshold measurements. This result is consistent with a variational calculation corrected for leading relativistic and quantum electrodynamical effects.