Toroidal electron spectrometer exported to Germany

La Trobe University physicists have reversed the traditional direction of technology flow by designing and building a toroidal electron spectrometer and exporting it to Germany.

Professors Riley and Leckey and three other team members, Dr Len Broekman, Mr Eric Huwald and Mr Anton Tadich, accompanied the device to Berlin to install it and ensures it was working efficiently.

Designed for angle resolve photoelectron spectroscopy, the spectrometer determines the electronic properties of materials, using photons in the form of a light beam from a synchrotron source to eject electrons from a material, analysing the angle and speed at which individual electrons emerge from the material.

Electron spectrometers enable scientists to gain fundamental knowledge of the electronic magnetic and other properties of technically important material like silicon and other semi-conductors used in electronic and optical devices.

The spectrometer contributes to the advance of electron spectroscopy because it analyses all electrons emitted in a given plane from a sample as well as sampling a range of energies simultaneously. Commercial spectrometers do not have this parallel detection capability in both angle and energy.

They achieved this capability by designing a 'wrap-around' or doughnut-shaped device that captures the electrons coming from a sample at all different angles in a plane and by arranging for a group of these electrons with a spread in energy to be detected at the same time.