Evaluation of the use of photoelectron imaging in obtaining photoelectron spectra and angular distributions: comparison with the field-free time-of-flight method

We present photoelectron spectra and angular distributions which have been deduced using two methods: (i) manipulation of the inverse Abel transforms of photoelectron images; (ii) use of angle-resolved field-free time-of-flight photoelectron spectra. Resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization via two vibrational levels in S-1 para-difluorobenzene was used as our test case. We show that the methods produce complementary results with regard to resolution and the determination of ionic branching ratios, and comparable photoelectron angular distributions. They can therefore be judiciously applied to different situations in order to maximize the advantages of each. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.