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The decay of metastable states of the water radical cation H2O+ has been observed in an experiment that combines photofragment momentum imaging and electrostatic ion-beam trapping in a crossed-beam geometry. Photoabsorption of 532-nm laser light from a fast beam of H2O+ is observed to yield fragmentation into both OH0 + H+ and OH+ + H0. Using coincident photofragment momentum imaging, the initial state of the observed photofragmentation is associated with low vibrational levels of the second excited B²B2 state of H2O+, dissociating via absorption onto a repulsive part of the òA1 state. Electrostatic ion trapping in the laser interaction region is used to follow the photofragment intensity as a function of time and to determine the lifetime of the metastable states to be τB²B2 = 198 ± 11 μs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the mineral industry of Alaska in 2009, which suffered a drop to 2.912 billion U.S. dollars from 3.171 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. Full-time employment in the industry was at 2,209 production jobs and 361 development jobs and is expected to become lower due to the shortage in demand for minerals. A total of 330.7 million U.S. dollars was the estimated development expenditures during the year, with spending seen at Red Dog Mine, Fort Knox Mine and the Kensington project.

The photolysis of the hydronium cation H³O+ has been studied at the extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 35.56±0.24 nm (34.87±0.24 eV) and 21.85±0.17 nm (56.74±0.44 eV) using a crossed ion-photon beam setup at the free-electron laser FLASH. Coincidence photoelectron and photofragment spectroscopy was performed at 21.85 nm, where both inner and outer valence ionization are allowed, and revealed that the XUV photolysis of H³O+ is by far dominated by ionization of outer valence electrons forming the 1A1 and 2E states of the dication H3O2+. The dications were found to dissociate into the channels H²O++H+ (72±4%), OH0+2H+ (18±6%), and OH++H++H0 (10±1%). A kinematic analysis of the H²O++H+ channel after photoabsorption at 35.56 nm (where only outer valence ionization is possible) showed dissociation into excited states of the water radical ion, where the 1A1 state breaks up into the linear A~ ²A¹ state of H²O+ and the 2E state decays into the strongly bent B~ 2B2 state. Finally, from the 2E state of H³O2+, dissociation into OH0(X 2)+2H+ was identified to occur with a near linear dissociation geometry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photofragmentation of the water cation H2O+ through dicationic states has been studied at 35.0±0.2 nm (35.4±0.3 eV) and 21.8±0.2 nm (56.8±0.5 eV) with a crossed ion-photon beams experiment at the free electron laser FLASH. The dissociation of the dications is found to be similar at the two wavelengths and to proceed into O0+2H+, OH++H+, and O++H2+, with determined ratios sOH++H+/sO++H2+=4.2±0.3 and sOH++H+/sO0+2H+>0.7. The measured kinetic-energy releases for these processes are consistent with three-body breakup (O0+2H+) occurring mainly through the 23A" and 21A" states of H2O2+ and two-body breakup (OH++H+) occurring through X3A", 13A", and 11A" states of H2O2+, as predicted in a recent theoretical study [Gervais , J. Chem. Phys.0021-960610.1063/1.3157164 131, 024302 (2009)]. In addition to the kinetic-energy releases, we also report on fragment correlation in the three-body channel where the two protons carry the major part of the released momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]