Design and Construction of a 3D Velocity Map Imaging Spectrometer

Enormous insight can be gained into high energy molecular processes by ionizing a molecule and examining the energy release of the resulting ions and electrons. Time-of-flight spectroscopy is a simple and powerful technique for measuring the mass-to-charge ratio and initial energy of a particle by recording the time it takes to accelerate through a region. Velocity map imaging (VMI) is a newer technique that measures the kinetic energy and angular distributions of electrons and ions in the form of a 2D spatial image. VMI spectrometers can now be combined with time-of-flight techniques to extract the entire three-dimensional momentum distribution of a particle. Among many other benefits, this 3D detection is critical for experiments without intrinsic cylindrical symmetry. This thesis describes 3D momentum imaging upgrades implemented with an existing 2D VMI