Recovery of quantum efficiency on Cs/O-activated GaN and GaAs photocathodes by thermal annealing in vacuum

Abstract

In this paper, the authors describe the effectiveness of thermal annealing in vacuum for quantum efficiency (QE) recovery from Cs/O-activated GaN and GaAs photocathodes. The QE of Cs/O-activated GaN photocathodes at 3.4 eV dropped from 1.0% to <0.001% upon exposure to nitrogen and then increased to 0.6% upon annealing. On the other hand, the QE of Cs/O-activated GaAs at 1.42 eV did not increase after annealing. In addition, after Cs/O activation, the sample was exposed to normal laboratory air and installed in an X-ray photoemission spectroscopy system. Upon annealing at 330 °C, three key results were confirmed as follows: (1) the work function decreased by 0.32 eV, (2) the chemical states of Cs 4d and Ga 3d were unchanged, and (3) the intensities of O 1s and C 1s on the high-binding-energy side decreased. In conclusion, the experimental results indicate that the annealing recovers the QE of Cs/O-activated GaN photocathode.