Abstract
Work function, photoemission yield, and Auger electron spectra were measured on (001) p-type GaAs during negative electron affinity (NEA) surface preparation, surface degradation, and heating processes. The emission current sensitively depends on work function change and its dependence allows us to determine that the shape of the vacuum barrier was close to double triangular. Regarding the NEA surface degradation during photoemission, we discuss the importance of residual gas components the oxygen and hydrogen. We also found that gentle annealing (≤100 °C) of aged photocathodes results in a lower work function and may offer a patch to reverse the performance degradation.
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