Coincidence electron spectrometer for studying electron-atom collisions

The details of our recently developed coincidence electron spectrometer system with the block diagram and characteristics of the coincidence circuit are presented. As a first application we measured the continuous energy spectra of the scattered electron projectiles producing an L-2,L-3 inner-shell ionization/excitation of argon. The Studied energy region was the neighbourhood of the ionization edge, where nearly the total excess energy is taken away by the scattered projectile. Above the edge we identify the peaks of the scattered electrons that produced 2p(3/2) -> 4s or 2p(3/2) -> 3d excitation. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.