Electron Affinities of the Early Lanthanide Monoxide Molecules

The photoelectron imagings of LaO^-, CeO^-, PrO^-, and NdO^- at 1064 nm are reported. The well resolved photoelectron spectra allow the electron a±nities to be determined as 0.99(1) eV for LaO, 1.00(1) eV for CeO, 1.00(1) eV for PrO, and 1.01(1) eV for NdO, respectively. Density functional calculations and natural atomic orbital analyses show that the 4f electrons tend to be localized and suffer little from the charge states of the molecules. The photodetached electron mainly originates from the 6s orbital of the metals. The ligand field theory with the δ=2 assumption is still an effective method to analyze the ground states of the neutral and anionic lanthanide monoxides.