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Electronic state chromatography of lutetium cations

Biswajit Jana1,2,3,4,*, EunKang Kim1,2,3, Aayush Arya1,2,3,5, Michael Block1,2,3, Sebastian Raeder2,3, Harry Ramanantoanina1,2,3, Elisabeth Rickert1,2,3, Elisa Romero Romero1,2,3, and Mustapha Laatiaoui1,2,3,6

  • *Contact author: bjana@uni-mainz.de
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 032807 – Published 4 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fxgg-tlbb

Abstract

Relativistic effects have a profound impact on the electronic structure of the heaviest elements, and consequently on their chemical and physical properties. In order to investigate these effects, we developed an ion mobility spectrometer equipped with a cryogenic drift tube to measure the reduced mobilities of the ions of monoatomic lanthanides and actinides. As a benchmark, we conducted the first systematic study of lutetium cations (Lu+) drifting in helium at 298 K, resolving ground and metastable electronic states using electronic state chromatography. We compared the state-specific mobilities with predictions based on state-of-the-art ab initio calculations, and they show very good agreement. Our work paves the way for atomic structure studies in the region of the superheavy elements and provides a powerful experimental approach for exploring ion-neutral interactions and electronic configuration effects in heavy element systems.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 032807– Published 4 September, 2026
  • Received 20 April 2026
  • Accepted 22 July 2026
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