A trochoidal spectrometer for the analysis of low-energy inelastically backscattered electrons

Abstract

A spectrometer designed to study electrons which are scattered at 180° with respect to the direction of the incident beam from a gas or a solid surface target, has been constructed and tested. The instrument is capable of operating at very low impact energies (0.05–15 eV) with an absolute energy resolution of 18 meV full width at half-maximum (FWHM). The performance of this apparatus is demonstrated with vibrational energy-loss spectra of H2O and C6H6 molecules condensed on a polycrystalline platinum substrate held near a temperature of 80 K.