Practical Limitations of Low Mean Transverse Energy Metallic Photocathodes
Description
The performance of accelerator applications like X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs)and ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and microscopy (UEM) experiments is limited
by the brightness of electron beams generated by photoinjectors. In order to
maximize the brightness of an electron beam it is essential that electrons are emitted
from photocathodes with the smallest possible mean transverse energy (MTE).
Metallic photocathodes hold the record for the smallest MTE ever measured at 5
meV from a Cu(100) single crystal photocathode operated near the photoemission
threshold and cooled to 30 K. However such photocathodes have two major limitations:
poor surface stability, and a low quantum efficiency (QE) which leads to
MTE degrading non-linear photoemission effects when extracting large charge densities.
This thesis investigates the efficacy of using a graphene protective layer in order
to improve the stability of a Cu(110) single crystalline surface. The contribution to
MTE from non-linear photoemission effects is measured from a Cu(110) single crystal
photocathode at a variety of excess energies, laser fluences, and laser pulse lengths.
To conclude this thesis, the design and research capabilities of the Photocathode and
Bright Beams Lab (PBBL) are presented. Such a lab is required to develop cathode
technology to mitigate the practical limitations of metallic photocathodes.
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2023
Agent
- Author (aut): Knill, Christopher John
- Thesis advisor (ths): Karkare, Siddharth
- Committee member: Drucker, Jeffery
- Committee member: Kaindl, Robert
- Committee member: Teitelbaum, Samuel
- Publisher (pbl): Arizona State University