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The polarized electron source is a critical component in accelerator facilities such as the electron–ion collider, which requires a polarized electron gun with higher voltage and higher bunch charge than existing sources. One challenge we faced was the surface charge limit of the distributed Bragg reflector GaAs/GaAsP superlattice (DBR-SL-GaAs) photocathode. We suppressed this effect by optimizing the surface doping and heat cleaning procedures. We achieved up to 11.6 nC bunch charge of polarized electron beam. In this report, we discuss the performance of tests of a DBR-SL-GaAs photocathode in the high voltage direct current gun. Possible reasons for the observed peak quantum efficiency wavelength shift are analyzed, and we addressed it by using a wavelength tunable laser. In addition, the impact of the DBR layer and laser on the lifetime is investigated in this paper. The optimal DBR-SL-GaAs operating zone has been proposed, which gave us a long lifetime and high polarization at 30 μA operation. The success of this polarized gun will be key to the future of the nuclear sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin polarized photocathodes are key to the future operation of electron accelerators such as the ones at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Currently, these photocathodes come in short supply due to limited production by molecular beam epitaxy. By developing a process to implement similar structures using metal organic chemical vapor deposition, the availability of these devices can be increased. In this paper, we detail the implementation of recent photocathode advancements via metal organic chemical vapor deposition process and show an improvement in both polarization and quantum efficiency of our devices compared to those fabricated via molecular beam epitaxy, with devices reaching 82% polarization and 2.9% quantum efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocathodes based on GaAs and other III–V semiconductors are capable of producing highly spin-polarized electron beams. GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathodes exhibit high spin polarization; however, the quantum efficiency (QE) is limited to 1% or less. To increase the QE, we fabricated a GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathode with a Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) underneath. This configuration creates a Fabry–Pérot cavity between the DBR and GaAs surface, which enhances the absorption of incident light and, consequently, the QE. These photocathode structures were grown using molecular beam epitaxy and achieved record quantum efficiencies exceeding 15% and electron spin polarization of about 75% when illuminated with near-bandgap photon energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lifetime of GaAs photocathodes in polarized electron guns is limited due to the delicate activation layer. An atomically clean and smooth GaAs surface is needed to deposit a robust activation layer, such as Cs 2 Te , with longer lifetime compared to traditional (Cs,O) activation. A previous experiment with Cs 2 Te activation on GaAs used heat cleaning temperatures around 400 ° C to avoid an increase in surface roughness [Bae et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 154101 (2018)]. High-temperature heat cleaning around 580 ° C , which results in a relatively contamination-free surface, could be one possible way to improve quantum efficiency. However, one should be cautious about surface roughness degradation during high-temperature heat cleaning. In this paper, we report results of surface roughness measurements on native, heat cleaned, and (Cs,O) activated GaAs photocathodes under vacuum. The results, measured by ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy, show that the surface roughness improves as the heat cleaning temperature is increased, by at least a factor of three for 580 ° C heat cleaning, compared to the native sample. Activation with (Cs,O) is shown to increase surface roughness by a factor of four compared to a 580 ° C heat cleaned sample. This confirms that high-temperature heat cleaning can be useful for depositing good quality robust activation layers on GaAs. We also report chemical analysis for each step of preparation for p-doped GaAs photocathodes using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), angle-resolved XPS, and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the (Cs,O) activation layer forms a sandwich structure consists of Cs and oxygen. We found no formation of any specific compound such as Cs 2 O or Cs 11 O 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GaAs photocathodes are the primary choice for generating spin-polarized electron beam with high brightness, high polarization, and fast polarization reversal. However, it suffers from short lifetime due to the highly reactive nature of the emission surface, resulting in substantial operational difficulties. Activating GaAs with a more robust material, such as Cs2Te, shows comparable polarization to that of Cs–O activation and increases the lifetime due to the robustness of the Cs2Te layer. However, previously reported photocathodes based on Cs–Te activation on GaAs suffer from 10× lower quantum efficiency (QE) compared to that activated with conventional Cs–O activation. Herein, we report activation recipes for GaAs photocathodes using Cs, O2, and Te. For Cs–Te activation, the QE was 6.6% at 532 nm. For Cs–O–Te activation, the QE was 8.8% at 532 nm and 4.5% at 780 nm. The negative electron affinity of the activated GaAs was directly measured and confirmed by low energy electron microscopy. We also report the activation layer chemical states and stoichiometry using in situ micro-spot synchrotron radiation x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]