A solenoid retarding spectrometer with high resolution and transmission for keV electrons

We have built an electrostatic electron spectrometer combining both high resolution and large luminosity. The instrument consists essentially of two superconducting solenoids separated by a system of ring electrodes of 4 m in length. Source and detector are placed in the high-field regions of the superconducting solenoids, whereas the repellent analyzing electrostatic potential of the ring electrodes peaks at the minimum of the magnetic field in between these solenoids. The magnetic guiding field provides (i) the acceptance of the full foreward solid angle of 2π, (ii) the transformation of the transverse cyclotron motion into longitudinal motion parallel to the magnetic field. The energy resolution of the electrostatic filter is determined by the ratio of the magnetic fields at the source and in the analyzing plane. It is typically 5 × 10 3 in our case. The spectrometer will serve first of all to investigate the limits of the rest mass of the electron antineutrino from 3H 2ß-decay. It has been tested by measuring conversion lines from a 83mKr source which yielded an energy of Eγ = 32151.5(11) eV for the corresponding nuclear transition.