Highly efficient multichannel spin-polarization detection

Since the original work by Mott, the low efficiency of electron spin polarimeters, remaining orders of magnitude behind optical polarimeters, has prohibited many fundamental experiments. Here we report a solution to this problem using a novel concept of multichannel spin-polarization analysis that provides a stunning increase in efficiency by 4 orders of magnitude. This improvement was demonstrated in a setup using a hemispherical electron energy analyzer. An imaging setup proved the principal capability of resolving more than 10(5) data points in parallel.