Precision measurement of the rotational energy-level structure of the three-electron molecule He${}_2^{+}$

Abstract

The term values of all rotational levels of the ${}^4$He${{}_2}^{+}{X}^{+}{}^2{\Sigma }_u^{+}({\nu }^{+}=0)$ ground vibronic state with rotational quantum number $N^{+}\le 19$ have been determined with an accuracy of 8 x 10${}^{-4}$ cm${}^{-1}$ ($\sim 25$ MHz) by MQDT-assisted Rydberg spectroscopy of metastable He${}_2^{\ast }$. Comparison of these term values with term values recently calculated ab initio by Tung et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 136, 104309 (2012)] reveal discrepancies that rapidly increase with increasing rotational quantum number and reach values of 0.07 cm${}^{-1}$ ($\sim 2.1$ GHz) at $N^{+}=19$.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures

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• Precision measurements of quantum defects in the $n$P${}_{3/2}$ Rydberg States of ${}^{85}$Rb
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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Non-adiabatic, Relativistic, and Leading-order QED Corrections for Rovibrational Intervals of ${}^4$He${}_2^{+}$ ($X{}^2{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{u}}^{+}$)
• Precision Measurements in Few-Electron Molecules: The Ionization Energy of Metastable ${}^4$He${}_2$ and the First Rotational Interval of ${}^4$He${{}_2}^{+}$
• Non-adiabatic mass-correction functions and rovibrational states of ${}^4$He${}_2^{+}$ ($X{}^2{\Sigma }_{\text{u}}^{+}$)
• Non-adiabatic mass correction to the rovibrational states of molecules. Numerical application for the H${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• H${}_3^{+}$ as a five-body problem described with explicitly correlated Gaussian basis sets
• Ab initio potential energy curves, scattering lengths, and rovibrational levels of the He${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion in excited electronic states
• Characterization of the electronic ground state of He${}_2^{+}$ by high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy
• High-Precision Quantum Dynamics of He${}_2$ over the b ${}^3{\Pi }_{\mathrm{g}}$-c ${}^3{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{g}}^{+}$ Electronic Subspace by including Non-adiabatic, Relativistic and QED Corrections and Couplings
• Rovibrational computations for He${}_2^{+}$ X ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{u}}^{+}$ including non-adiabatic, relativistic and QED corrections
• Rovibrational computations for the He${}_2$ a ${}^3{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{u}}^{+}$ state including non-adiabatic, relativistic, and QED corrections