Employing Resonance-Enhanced Multi-Photon Dissociation for measuring the dissociation energy of LiO$^{\mathrm{-}}$*

We have evaluated the dissociation energy of LiO$^{\mathrm{-}}$ through photo-fragmentation by measuring the kinetic energy release (KER) upon dissociation into Li$+$O$^{\mathrm{-}}$. Resonance-enhanced two-photon absorption was used to increase the rate of dissociating LiO$^{\mathrm{-}}$ by about two orders of magnitude over single-photon photodissociation. This REMPI-like process involves exciting LiO$^{\mathrm{-}}$ to an intermediate state from which photodissociation is more efficient. Using the measured KER distribution, we set a lower limit on the dissociation energy of 3.0$\pm$0.1 eV, which is 0.3 eV larger than the value based on theory.