A high efficiency spectrometer for reflection (e,2e) experiments at surfaces

To study electron momentum densities in solids by grazing angle reflection kinematics has been shown to be feasible, but development of this spectroscopy has been hampered by long acquisition time; to fully exploit potentialities of this method is mandatory to reduce duration of the experiment within times comparable with clean surface lifetimes in ultra-high vacuum. This paper reports on recent developments of the reflection (e,2e) spectrometer that make a sizeable step forward in attaining this goal. It operates in asymmetric kinematics and at small grazing angle, thus allowing to enhance the surface sensitivity. A drastic reduction in acquisition time has been achieved by implementing parallel acquisition, both in energy and angle, of the detected electron pairs. To achieve parallel acquisition in energy and momentum, each of the two electron analysers is equipped with a two-dimensional position sensitive detector. A custom-made electronic hardware and software have been developed for the automatic control of the experiment and for acquisition and storage of the coincidence events