A novel spectrometer for spin-polarized electron energy-loss spectroscopy

By making use of advanced methods for the calculation of electron trajectories in the presence of space charge fields we have designed and built a novel electron energy-loss spectrometer for the purpose of measuring spin flip excitations at surfaces. The measurement of the spin asymmetry requires a deflection angle between the photocathode and the sample position which amounts to 90degrees in total. That deflection angle is not provided by standard electron deflectors, or by a combination of those. We show that a 90degrees deflection angle can be realized by a combination of two novel deflectors with 90degrees and 180degrees deflection angles each. The performance of the new spectrometer matches the performance of the best electron spectrometers developed for surface vibration spectroscopy. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.