A collinear angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer

In the present paper we describe a newly designed collinear photoelectron spectrometer for angular distribution measurements. We will henceforth refer to this instrument by the acronym PEARLS (PhotoElectron Angle-Resolved Linear Spectrometer). The design was motivated by the desire to collect electrons emitted from an extended linear source consisting of collinear photon and ion beams at a synchrotron radiation site. The electrons could be produced in either photoionization or photodetachment events. The primary advantage of a collinear beams geometry is that the effective interaction volume can be made much larger than that obtainable with a crossed beams geometry, which has been used in many earlier photoelectron spectroscopic studies. The present apparatus is capable of collecting electrons over a beam source length of 22 cm. The electrons are detected using Channel Electron Multipliers (CEMs). There are 4 detector planes placed perpendicular to the direction of the beam source, where each plane contains 4 CEMs. The use of all 4 detector planes with a total of 16 CEMs enhances the photoelectron signal, which is important at a synchrotron radiation site where the photon flux is typically low. If photoelectrons of different energies are emitted, the design allows for electrostatic energy analyzers to be placed in front of the CEMs. We have performed a photodetachment experiment to demonstrate the functionality of the PEARLS apparatus using a pulsed laser as the photon source. In particular, we have measured the angular distribution of photoelectrons ejected from Ag- at two different photon energies.