Influence of surface carbon on the performance of cesiated p-GaN photocathodes with high quantum efficiency.

This study shows residual surface carbon's influence on photocathodes' quantum efficiency based on p-GaN grown on sapphire by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. An X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) built in an ultrahigh vacuum system allowed the in-situ monitoring of the photocathode surface beginning immediately after their cleaning and throughout the activation and degradation processes. An atomically clean surface is necessary to achieve a negative electron affinity, which is the main prerequisite for high quantum efficiency. The p-GaN samples were cleaned with ethanol and underwent a sub-sequential thermal vacuum cleaning. Although carbon and oxygen contaminations are expected to be undesired impurities from the metal organic chemical vapor deposition, which remained on the surface, p-GaN could still form a negative electron affinity surface when exclusively activated with cesium. After the activation with cesium, a shift to a higher binding energy of the photoemission peaks was observed, and a new species, a so-called cesium carbide, was formed, growing over time. The XPS data elucidated the critical role of these cesium carbide species in photocathode degradation. The X-ray damage to the p-GaN:Cs photocathodes, especially the influence on the cesium, was additionally discussed.

Influence of Surface Cleaning on Quantum Efficiency, Lifetime and Surface Morphology of p-GaN:Cs Photocathodes.

Accelerator scientists have high demands on photocathodes possessing high quantum efficiency (QE) and long operational lifetime. p-GaN, as a new photocathode type, has recently gained more and more interest because of its ability to form a negative electron affinity (NEA) surface. Being activated with a thin layer of cesium, p-GaN:Cs photocathodes promise higher QE and better stability than the known photocathodes. In our study, p-GaN samples grown on sapphire or silicon were wet chemically cleaned and transferred into an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber, where they underwent a subsequent thermal cleaning. The cleaned p-GaN samples were activated with cesium to obtain p-GaN:Cs photocathodes, and their performance was monitored with respect to their quality, especially their QE and storage lifetime. The surface topography and morphology were examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. We have shown that p-GaN could be efficiently reactivated with cesium several times. This paper systematically compares the influence of wet chemical cleaning as well as thermal cleaning at various temperatures on the QE, storage lifetime and surface morphology of p-GaN. As expected, the cleaning strongly influences the cathodes' quality. We show that high QE and long storage lifetime are achievable at lower cleaning temperatures in our UHV chamber.

Extremely efficient terahertz high-harmonic generation in graphene by hot Dirac fermions.

Multiple optical harmonic generation-the multiplication of photon energy as a result of nonlinear interaction between light and matter-is a key technology in modern electronics and optoelectronics, because it allows the conversion of optical or electronic signals into signals with much higher frequency, and the generation of frequency combs. Owing to the unique electronic band structure of graphene, which features massless Dirac fermions1-3, it has been repeatedly predicted that optical harmonic generation in graphene should be particularly efficient at the technologically important terahertz frequencies4-6. However, these predictions have yet to be confirmed experimentally under technologically relevant operation conditions. Here we report the generation of terahertz harmonics up to the seventh order in single-layer graphene at room temperature and under ambient conditions, driven by terahertz fields of only tens of kilovolts per centimetre, and with field conversion efficiencies in excess of 10-3, 10-4 and 10-5 for the third, fifth and seventh terahertz harmonics, respectively. These conversion efficiencies are remarkably high, given that the electromagnetic interaction occurs in a single atomic layer. The key to such extremely efficient generation of terahertz high harmonics in graphene is the collective thermal response of its background Dirac electrons to the driving terahertz fields. The terahertz harmonics, generated via hot Dirac fermion dynamics, were observed directly in the time domain as electromagnetic field oscillations at these newly synthesized higher frequencies. The effective nonlinear optical coefficients of graphene for the third, fifth and seventh harmonics exceed the respective nonlinear coefficients of typical solids by 7-18 orders of magnitude7-9. Our results provide a direct pathway to highly efficient terahertz frequency synthesis using the present generation of graphene electronics, which operate at much lower fundamental frequencies of only a few hundreds of gigahertz.

Electron beam diagnostics for a superconducting radio frequency photoelectron injector.

A superconducting radio frequency (SRF) photoelectron injector is currently under construction by a collaboration of BESSY, DESY, FZD, and MBI. The project aims at the design and setup of a continuous-wave SRF injector including a diagnostics beamline for the ELBE free electron laser (FEL) and to address R&D issues on low emittance injectors for future light sources such as the BESSY FEL. Of critical importance for the injector performance is the control of the electron beam parameters. For this reason a compact diagnostics beamline is under development, serving a multitude of operation settings. In this paper the layout and the rationale of the diagnostics beamline are described. Furthermore detailed information on specific components is given, together with results from laboratory tests and data taking.