Design of a miniature picosecond low-energy electron gun for time-resolved scattering experiments

We present the design and performance tests of a miniaturized pulsed low-energy electron gun. Electrons photoemitted from a gold cathode are accelerated over a distance of 75 μm and then collimated by a microchannel plate. According to calculations, this novel concept will allow the time spread of the electron pulses to be kept below 5 ps for kinetic energies as low as 100 eV. The achievement of a minimum angular beam divergence (≈1°) along with an energy resolution of 1.1 eV has to be paid for by low signal intensities. We demonstrate the performance of the gun and the high electron-beam coherence by presenting low-energy-electron diffraction images taken from a submonolayer of lead adsorbed on the germanium (111) surface. We anticipate that this electron gun will open up new possibilities for following structural changes on solid surfaces in real time.