Monte Carlo charge transport and photoemission from negative electron affinity GaAs photocathodes

Siddharth Karkare, Dimitre Dimitrov, William Schaff, Luca Cultrera, Adam Bartnik, Xianghong Liu, Eric Sawyer, Teresa Esposito, Ivan Bazarov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Scopus citations

Abstract

High quantum yield, low transverse energy spread, and prompt response time make GaAs activated to negative electron affinity an ideal candidate for a photocathode in high brightness photoinjectors. Even after decades of investigation, the exact mechanism of electron emission from GaAs is not well understood. Here, photoemission from such photocathodes is modeled using detailed Monte Carlo electron transport simulations. Simulations show a quantitative agreement with the experimental results for quantum efficiency, energy distributions of emitted electrons, and response time without the assumption of any ad hoc parameters. This agreement between simulation and experiment sheds light on the mechanism of electron emission and provides an opportunity to design novel semiconductor photocathodes with optimized performance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number104904
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume113
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 14 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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