Copper Surface Treatment with deep UV Ultrafast Laser for Improved Photocathode Photoemissive Properties

Abstract

Cesium Telluride (Cs2Te) constitutes today the photoemissive semiconductor material of choice for electron accelerators due to its high quantum efficiency (QE) in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) spectral range, and capability to produce high charge over a long operation lifetime. Unfortunately, its chemical instability requires ultra-high vacuum (in the 10-10 mbar range). This inevitably complicates Cs2Te photocathode handling, and increases the overall cost compared to metallic counterparts. Copper photocathodes are alternative candidates, and although they are much more tolerant in terms of vacuum requirements, their use in high average current photo-injectors is limited due to their orders of magnitude lower QE (around 10-5 per unit). With the development of nanophotonics, plasmonic phenomena can now be exploited to tailor a new range of effects in the photoemission process. In this work, we focus on direct laser fabrication of nanostructures for plasmonic electric-field enhancement on copper, and study their potential for enhancing the quantum yield. We develop a methodology to fabricate the nanostructures by irradiating the Cu surface with 257 nm femtosecond pulses, well above copper’s work function. We directly obtained nanostructures 100-200 nm, matching the plasmonic resonance for photoinjector wavelengths. The study is accompanied by a parametric scan allowing to obtain the optimal laser machining parameters, and the analysis of the nanostructure morphologies obtained.