Very high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy on deeply cold gold cluster anions

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Gold clusters are attracting significant interest due to their often exotic properties, which are closely linked to the strong influence of relativistic effects in their interatomic bonding. Photoelectron spectroscopy on gold cluster anions has helped to unveil many interesting properties of smaller clusters, but for clusters with more than 20 atoms was hampered both by finite resolution and the difficulties theory had to simulate photoelectron spectra reliably. Very recently a breakthrough has been achieved in the theoretical treatment of gold clusters; now much better resolved photoelectron spectra are needed to fully exploit this progress. We have developed a new version of a magnetic bottle spectrometer with a significantly improved resolution, which in combination with cryogenic cooling of the clusters could be used to obtain spectra of unprecedented quality. We propose to perform a comprehensive study of size-selected gold cluster anions using isomer-sensitive methods, which in combination with the new theoretical results will lead to a much better understanding of the geometric and electronic structure of these clusters, as well as of dynamic aspects of the photoemission like hole lifetimes.