By excitation with short light pulses from synchrotron or laser sources, in combination with time-of-flight electron energy analyzers, data sets consisting of closely spaced data points N(hn, Ekin) are obtained. From these arrays, subsets of data optimized for the investigation of distinct problems are obtained:
- standard photoemission spectra (EDS) by cutting parallel to the Ekin axis
- cutting parallel to the hn axis yields constant final state (CFS) data
- constant initial state data (CIS) along a line with slope = 1
- total and partial electron yield spectra (TEY, PEY) by integrating over different regions of the electron energy
- photoemission features appear at constant binding energy (slope = 1), excitons at constant hn.