Photoelectron spectrometer for liquid and gas-phase attosecond spectroscopy with field-free and magnetic bottle operation modes.

A compact time-of-flight spectrometer for applications in attosecond spectroscopy in the liquid and gas phases is presented. It allows for altering the collection efficiency by transitioning between field-free and magnetic-bottle operation modes. High energy resolution (ΔE/E = 0.03 for kinetic energies >20 eV) is achieved despite the short flight-tube length through a homogeneous deceleration potential at the beginning of the flight tube. A closing mechanism allows isolating the vacuum system of the flight tube from the interaction region in order to efficiently perform liquid-microjet experiments. The capabilities of the instrument are demonstrated through photoelectron spectra from multiphoton ionization of argon and xenon, as well as photoelectron spectra of liquid and gaseous water generated by an attosecond pulse train.