Development of Time-of-Flight Electron Energy Analyzer for Multimodal Spectroscopy

Materials breakthrough have always been the foundation for technological advancement and economic growth. As we reach the limit of what is possible with today’s materials, for example the scaling limits of current semiconductor technologies, an unprecedented ability to characterize materials is needed. The proposed project aims to develop the next generation instrument for multimodal photoemission experiments with breakthrough capabilities and performance, to enable new experiments beyond what is possible today.This instrument is based on two entirely new concepts for high spatial resolution and spin filtering while operating with ultra-high time, energy and momentum resolution, and with the highest figure of merit available today. The instrument is designed to be user-friendly for fulfilling the needs of scientific experts, while at the same time increasing adoption by non-experts and eventually industry technicians. This will be achieved through the combination of a turnkey angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy setup integrated with an artificial intelligence driven data analysis toolkit, to enable optimization of experimental outcomes in real time and rapid automated data processing. We will leverage our partnership with the national laboratories and universities with whom we had developed the original version of the instrument, as well as the know-how we acquired from building a higher efficiency/resolution spin-time-of-flight analyzer, the first of its kind, which still today represents one of the best analyzers for time- and spin-resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy. In Phase I the goal is to develop a novel spin filter, while in parallel refining the design of the lens column for the time of flight tube and evaluate the best electron detection methods to be integrated with our system. In Phase II the entire system will be engineered and integrated with machine learning for both data acquisition and analysis, to enable a broad adoption of the technique. In conclusion, the development of such advanced instrumentation will open the way to the next materials revolution while speeding up the transition into future technologies and enable the creation of the first domestic business to produce and export state of the art multimodal angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy analyzers (all other companies are foreign). This will increase competitive options for choice of analyzers, provide a domestic option for detectors choices and result in the creation of new jobs for our science and engineering majors.