Time-resolved X-ray photoelectron diffraction using an angle-resolved time-of-flight electron analyzer

X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) provides atomic resolution, element sensitive local structure information about the surfaces and interfaces of materials. In the work reported in this paper, a two-dimensional angle resolved time-of-flight (2DARTOF) system is used to perform time-resolved XPD experiments on epitaxial silicene. The two Si 2p peak components from the different atomic sites in the silicene layer allow extraction of the individual XPD patterns. Time-resolved measurements captured small angle shifts in the forward focusing peak, indicating laser-induced changes in the silicene structure. At 10 ns, the XPD patterns appear to relax back to the equilibrium state. This work demonstrates that 2DARTOF systems are well suitable for time-resolved XPD measurements.