Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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American Physical Society, Physical Review Letters, 19(107), 2011

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.107.193003

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Structure and Stability of the Negative Hydrogen Molecular Ion

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present the results of a Coulomb explosion experiment that allows for the imaging of the rovibrational wave function of the metastable H2- ion. Our measurements confirm the predicted large internuclear separation of 6 a.u., and they show that the ion decays by autodetachment rather than by spontaneous dissociation. Imaging of the resulting H2 products reveals a large angular momentum of J = 25 ± 2, quantifying the rotation that leads to the metastability of this most fundamental molecular anion.