The design and application of a detector is described, which is capable of simultaneously measuring energy and angular distributions of neutral particles desorbed from surfaces. Specific applications to ion bombardment studies are presented. The detector utilizes the state selectivity, sensitivity, and pulsed characteristics of multiphoton resonance ionization as a time‐of‐flight sensitive postionization technique. A microchannel‐plate element allows position‐sensitive detection of the laser‐ionized particles. Sample data are presented for ground‐state Rh atoms desorbed from clean, ion‐bombarded Rh foil and Rh(111) surfaces.