Influence of ion beam surface treatment on the emission performance of photocathodes

Photocathodes are mainly used in such hi-tech fields as photoelectric conversion devices, radiation detection, and accelerators. Laser-driven photocathodes are characterized by low emission, high brightness, easy control, rapid response, etc., and are hopeful to become satisfactory electron sources for next-generation high-frequency miniaturized electric vacuum microwave devices, to effectively improve the performance and rapid response capability of the devices. For this reason, based on previous research efforts on photocathodes, we proposed an idea that ion beam surface treatment technology was used to modify the substrate surface of photocathodes and make the surface textured, enhancing the light absorptivity and alkali metal adsorption performance of photocathodes, so as to improve their emission performance. The surface appearance of photocathodes was analyzed using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) method, and it was found that the surface of oxygen-free copper treated by ion bombardment had a nanocone structure. The photoemission characteristics of photocathodes before and after the treatment of the surface of oxygen-free copper were studied. Before and after the treatment, the maximum photoemission current densities under stable emission performance of the photocathode were 60.5 mA cm^-2 and 146.0 mA cm^-2, respectively, and the calculated quantum efficiencies were 2.67 × 10^-3 and 1.71 × 10^-2, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the photocathode was increased by 5.41 times after the ion surface treatment. The results show that the photoemission quantum efficiency of the oxygen-free copper surface was increased greatly after modification. It was believed through analysis that the main cause for the increase in quantum efficiency was the enhancement of light absorptivity and the increase in the emission surface area.