Cooled Transmission-Mode NEA-Photocathode with a Band-Graded Active Layer for High Brightness Electron Source

A Free-Electron Laser (FEL) places many exacting demands on a Negative Electron Affinity (NEA) photocathode, such as the need for an ultra-fast response time, low energy spread for emitted electrons, high quantum efficiency (Q.E.) and a high average photocurrent. However, these key requirements are conflicting, and cannot be fulfilled by conventional photocathode design. For example, to achieve ∼10 ps response time, the photocathode active layer should be thinned to ∼100-150 nm, but this thickness is insufficient to provide near-complete absorption of light with hv≅εg so high Q.E. cannot be achieved. Complete optical absorption and high Q.E. can be obtained using a thin active layer at higher photon energies, but this generates photoelectrons with excess kinetic energy within the semiconductor. These photoelectrons do not thermalise in a thin active layer, so yield a broad energy distribution in the emitted electrons. Moreover, cooling of the conventional semiconductor photocathode structure is ineffective due to its fragility, so it cannot be pressed firmly to a heat sink to attain good thermal contact. Consequently, the maximum CW photocurrent is limited to a few miiliamps. The goal of our work is to develop a new design of NEA-photocathode which is optimised for FEL applications.