Identification of autoionizing states of atomic chromium for resonance photo-ionization at the ISOLDE-RILIS

The resonance ionization laser ion source (RILIS) is the principal ion source of the ISOLDE radioactive beam facility based at CERN. Using the method of in-source resonance ionization spectroscopy, an optimal three-step, three-resonance photo-ionization scheme has been developed for chromium. The scheme uses an ionizing transition to one of the 14 newly observed autoionizing states. This work increases the range of ISOLDE-RILIS ionized beams to 32 chemical elements. Details of the spectroscopic studies are described and the new ionization scheme is summarized. A link to the complete version of this document will be added here following publication: