APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Electron spectroscopy
- Electron microscopy
- Materials research for development of spintronic, solid-state data storage and data processing devices
ADVANTAGES:
- Improves efficiency by up to 1000 times
- Offers faster measurements with superior resolution at a wide range of photon energies
ABSTRACT:
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have invented a time-of-flight (TOF)-, spin-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectrometer that measures the energy spectrum and spin of a beam of electrons photoemitted from a sample and spatially disperses and filters those electrons and spin. Because the invention measures and manipulates energy, spin, and angle, it is ideal for analyzing the spin-dependent electronic structure of materials for the electronics, computing and semiconductor industries.
The Berkeley Lab technology achieves high efficiency and resolution by combining two alternate approaches to measuring electronic properties. First, it uses a custom, low-energy, exchange scattering polarimeter for detecting electron spin, in contrast to a typical, high-energy Mott scattering polarimeter. Second, it integrates the polarimeter within a time-of-flight (TOF) based energy analysis scheme with a flexible, high quality electrostatic lens system to provide parallel, multichannel energy analysis.
An integrated 90-degree bandpass filter enables a particular region of interest in a sample’s emitted spectrum to be targeted and measured with high-energy resolution. This feature simultaneously removes unwanted portions of the spectrum and enables use with higher photon energy and/or repetition rates than would otherwise be compatible with TOF techniques. By combining TOF with a 90-degree bandpass filter, the invention makes spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy possible using pulsed laser, Harmonic Generation (HHG) laser, pulsed synchrotron, and Free-Electron Laser (FEL) light sources. When used with these light sources, the study of ultrafast properties of condensed matter is also possible.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Industrial prototype.
STATUS: Copyrighted engineering schematics. Available for licensing or collaborative research.