In-situ multi-information measurement system for preparing gallium nitride photocathode

Abstract

We introduce the first domestic in-situ multi-information measurement system for a gallium nitride (GaN) photocathode. This system can successfully fulfill heat cleaning and activation for GaN in an ultrahigh vacuum environment and produce a GaN photocathode with a negative electron affinity (NEA) status. Information including the heat cleaning temperature, vacuum degree, photocurrent, electric current of cesium source, oxygen source, and the most important information about the spectral response, or equivalently, the quantum efficiency (QE) can be obtained during preparation. The preparation of a GaN photocathode with this system indicates that the optimal heating temperature in a vacuum is about 700 °C. We also develop a method of quickly evaluating the atomically clean surface with the vacuum degree versus wavelength curve to prevent possible secondary contamination when the atomic level cleaning surface is tested with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocurrent shows a quick enhancement when the current ratio between the cesium source and oxygen source is 1.025. The spectral response of the GaN photocathode is flat in a wavelength range from 240 nm to 365 nm, and an abrupt decline is observed at 365 nm, which demonstrates that with the in-situ multi-information measurement system the NEA GaN photocathode can be successfully prepared.