Atomic and molecular physics
The Artemis atomic and molecular physics end station
The atomic and molecular physics end-station has been designed for experiments on gas targets. The interaction station consists of two coupled chambers. The upper chamber contains a velocity-map imaging (VMI) detector for ions and electrons. Voltages of up to 15kV can be applied to the plates, and we are able to image electrons with energies up to 200 eV. The detector is a two-stage imaging MCP with phosphor and CCD camera. The spectrometer may also be configured for time-of-flight detection of ions or electrons.
The atomic and molecular physics end-station has been designed for experiments on gas targets. The interaction station consists of two coupled chambers. The upper chamber contains a velocity-map imaging (VMI) detector for ions and electrons. Voltages of up to 15kV can be applied to the plates, and we are able to image electrons with energies up to 200 eV. The detector is a two-stage imaging MCP with phosphor and CCD camera. The spectrometer may also be configured for time-of-flight detection of ions or electrons.
Ion (left) and electron (right) velocity map images of nitrogen
The lower chamber is pumped by two 3200 litres/sec turbo pumps. We can connect the chambers in two ways: with a skimmer for differential pumping and the source in the lower chamber; or with chambers connected and the source close to the interaction region. We have confirmed rotational cooling by impulsively aligning nitrogen molecules and measuring the angular distribution of the fragment ions. We have also carried out experiments on small helium clusters, using a gas-jet operating at high repetition rate.
The interaction station is designed to enable experiments such as studies of the dynamics of aligned molecules, control of electron recollisions, time-resolved photoelectron imaging of excited state molecular processes, and Coulomb explosion imaging of molecular wavepackets.
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