First Measurement of Pure Electron Shakeoff in the β Decay of Trapped 6He+ Ions

C. Couratin (1) , P. Velten (1) , X. Fléchard (1) , E. Liénard (1) , G. Ban (1) , A. Cassimi (2) , P. Delahaye , D. Dominique Durand (1) , D. Hennecart (2) , F. Mauger (1) , A. Méry (2) , O. Naviliat-Cuncic (1) , Z. Patyk , D. Rodríguez , K. Siegień-Iwaniuk , J.C. Thomas (3)

1 LPCC - Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen
2 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
3 GANIL - Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds

The electron shakeoff probability of 6Li2+ ions resulting from the β- decay of 6He+ ions has been measured with high precision using a specially designed recoil ion spectrometer. This is the first measurement of a pure electron shakeoff following nuclear β decay, not affected by multielectron processes such as Auger cascades. In this ideal textbook case for the application of the sudden approximation, the experimental ionization probability was found to be Psoexp=0.023 39(36) in perfect agreement with simple quantum mechanical calculations.

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

C. Couratin, P. Velten, X. Fléchard, E. Liénard, G. Ban, et al.. First Measurement of Pure Electron Shakeoff in the β Decay of Trapped 6He+ Ions. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 108, pp.243201. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.243201⟩. ⟨in2p3-00709325⟩