https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050246
Photodetachment microscopy of O-
Laboratoire Aimé-Cotton, Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
bâtiment 505, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
Received:
5
June
1998
Accepted:
16
October
1998
Published online: 15 February 1999
Photodetachment of 
ions is performed in the presence of a static
electric field. A high spatial resolution electron detector is used to map out the
ejected electron's wave function. Propagation over half a metre does not alter the
stationary structure the electron wave possesses in the direction orthogonal to the
detachment motion. Nodes and antinodes of electron current density are observed,
that can be interpreted as direct imaging of the internal atomic wave function.
Because detachment of a negative ion can be represented accurately in the
free-electron approximation, the obtained images can also be viewed as direct
experimental representations of the Green function of the uniform acceleration
problem. Agreement of the measured distributions with the exact expression of
this wave-function appears quite satisfactory.
PACS: 32.80.Gc – Photodetachment of atomic negative ions / 03.75.-b – Matter waves / 07.78.+s – Electron, positron, and ion microscopes, electron diffractometers, and related techniques
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1999
