High spatial and temporal resolution photon/electron counting detector for synchrotron radiation research

This paper reports on the development of a high resolution electron/photon/ion imaging system which detects events with a timing accuracy of <160 ps FWHM and a two-dimensional spatial accuracy of ∼50 μm FWHM. The event counting detector uses microchannel plates for signal amplification and can sustain counting rates exceeding 1.5 MHz for evenly distributed events (0.4 MHz with 10% dead time for randomly distributed events). The detector combined with a time-of-flight angular resolved photoelectron energy analyzer was tested at a synchrotron beamline. The results of these measurements illustrate the unique capabilities of the analytical system, allowing simultaneous imaging of photoelectrons in momentum space and measurement of the energy spectrum, as well as filtering the data in user defined temporal and/or spatial windows.