Electron coincidence spectrometer

Figure 4.47 Typical electronic circuit for the measurement of electron-electron coincidences with two spectrometers (SP1, SP2) placed at the positions 0 , and 5, , respectively. The pre- and main amplifiers are together represented by a triangle. The delay retards the signal from SP1, thus providing a STOP of the time-to-digital converter (TDC) if this time measuring device has been initiated by a START signal from a time-correlated event registered in SP2. The output of the TDC, i.e., the number of time-correlated events as function of the correlation time is stored in a histogramming memory (HIS. MEM.) which then is read out by a computer (COMP.).

For a correct analysis of photoionization processes studied by electron spectrometry, convolution procedures are essential because of the combined influence of several distinct energy distribution functions which enter the response signal of the electron spectrometer. In the following such a convolution procedure will be formulated for the general case of photon-induced two-electron emission needed for electron-electron coincidence measurements. As a special application, the convolution results for the non-coincident observation of photoelectrons or Auger electrons, and for photoelectrons in coincidence with subsequent Auger electrons are worked out. Finally, the convolutions of two Gaussian and of two Lorentzian functions are treated. 

For electron-electron coincidence measurements both spectrometer functions have to be taken into account, giving as the response function for selected pass... 

The ambiguity due to the occurrence of multiple peaks in Nal (Tl) spectrometry for energies above the pair threshold can be removed, at the expense of sensitivity, by the use of a three-crystal spectrometer. In this instrument pulses from the centre crystal are only accepted when there is simultaneously a pulse due to an annihilation quantum in each of two side crystals. The difference between single- and three-crystal spectra is shown in Fig. 12. For energies below the pair threshold improved resolution can be obtained by using a two-crystal coincidence spectrometer to measure the pulse height due to Compton recoil electrons (Hofstadter and McIntyre ). 

Time-of-flight mass spectrometers have been used as detectors in a wider variety of experiments tlian any other mass spectrometer. This is especially true of spectroscopic applications, many of which are discussed in this encyclopedia. Unlike the other instruments described in this chapter, the TOP mass spectrometer is usually used for one purpose, to acquire the mass spectrum of a compound. They caimot generally be used for the kinds of ion-molecule chemistry discussed in this chapter, or structural characterization experiments such as collision-induced dissociation. Plowever, they are easily used as detectors for spectroscopic applications such as multi-photoionization (for the spectroscopy of molecular excited states) [38], zero kinetic energy electron spectroscopy [39] (ZEKE, for the precise measurement of ionization energies) and comcidence measurements (such as photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy [40] for the measurement of ion fragmentation breakdown diagrams). 

---