Zero-core-contribution model and its application to photodetachment of atomic negative ions

Abstract

The authors have postulated a simple physical model for atomic negative ions and have obtained general formulas to describe their photodetachment characteristics. Absolute photodetachment cross sections, accurate to a factor of 2, and the angular distributions of detached electrons are at once made available for all atomic negative ions whose l, /sup 1/2/, and E are known, where l is the angular momentum quantum number for the outermost orbital electron of the anion, E and /sup 1/2/ are, respectively, the electron affinity and root-mean-square radius of the neutral atom. Values of these three input parameters are readily available for most atomic anions. The model seems to encompass the major physical attributes of atomic anions required for photodetachment. Its mathematics is simple. Because of this it is suggested that the model promises applicability to more complicated systems, particularly to photodetachment from molecular negative ions, and to more complicated processes, e.g., negative-ion--neutral-atom charge exchange.