The mass of a highly charged ion is the sum of the mass of the nucleus, the mass of the electrons and the electronic binding
energies. High accuracy mass measurements on highly charged ions in a sequence of different charge states yield informations
on atomic binding energies, i.e., the ionisation potentials. In our contribution we discuss the possibility of determining
atomic binding energies of highly charged ions to better than 20 eV via cyclotron frequency measurements in a Penning trap.
At this level of accuracy different contributions to the binding energies, like relativistic corrections, Breit corrections
and QED corrections, can be measured.
atomic structure - mass measurements - Penning trap
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.