Eur. Phys. J. D 60, 219-222 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00199-y

The electron affinity of tungsten

¹ Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
² Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
³ Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, 1090 Wien, Austria
⁴ Present Address: Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Corresponding authors: ^a anton.lindahl@physics.gu.se - ^b dag.hanstorp@physics.gu.se

Received: 13 April 2010
Published online: 27 July 2010

Abstract

The electron affinity of tungsten has been measured using laser photodetachment threshold spectroscopy in a collinear geometry. The electron affinity was determined to 6583.6(6) cm^-1 by observing the onset of the process when W^- ions in the ⁶S_5/2 ground state are photodetached producing neutral W atoms in the ⁵D₀ ground state. The measured value is in agreement with previous measurements and improves the accuracy by almost two orders of magnitude. Further, a photodetachment signal below the ground state photodetachment threshold was found, which indicates the existence of a bound excited state in W^-.