Achieving high signal-to-noise performance for a velocity-map imaging experiment

Since the publication of the pioneering paper on velocity-map imaging in 1997, by Eppink and Parker [A.T.J.B. Eppink, D.H. Parker, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68 (1997) 3477], numerous groups have applied this method in a variety of ways and to various targets. However, despite this interest, little attention has been given to the inherent difficulties and problems associated with this method. In implementing a velocity-map imaging system for photoelectron spectroscopy for the photo-detachment of anion radicals, we have developed a coaxial velocity-map imaging spectrometer. Examined are the advantages and disadvantages of such a system, in particular the sources of noise and the methods used to reduce it.