The electron affinity of thulium has been measured by a technique known as laser photodetachment electron spectroscopy. In this
technique, a gaseous beam of the anions of an element is bombarded with photons from a laser. Electrons from the anion are then ejected and their energies are detected. The incident radiation had a wavelength of 1064 nm, and the ejected electrons were found to have an energy of 0.137 eV. The electron affinity is the difference in energy between the incident photons and the energy of the ejected electrons. Determine the electron affinity of thulium in units of electron volts per atom.
The mass number is
238
, so the nucleus has <u>238 particles</u> in total, including <u>146 neutrons</u>. So to calculate the number of neutrons we have to subtract: 238 − 146 = 92