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Atomic hydrogen, produced by thermal dissociation of H2 molecules inside a hot tungsten capillary, is shown to be an efficient tool for multiple recleaning of degraded surfaces of high quantum efficiency transmission-mode GaAs photocathodes within an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) multichamber photoelectron gun. Ultraviolet quantum yield photoemission spectroscopy has been used to study the removal of surface pollutants and the degraded (Cs,O)-activation layer during the cleaning procedure. For photocathodes grown by the liquid-phase epitaxy technique, the quantum efficiency is found to be stable at about 20% over a large number of atomic hydrogen cleaning cycles. A slow degradation of the quantum efficiency is observed for photocathodes grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, although they reached a higher initial quantum efficiency of about 30%–35%. Study of the spatial distributions of photoluminescence intensity on these photocathodes proved that this overall degradation is likely due to insertion of a dislocation network into the mechanically strained photocathode heterostructures during multiple heating cycles and is not due to the atomic hydrogen treatment itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoemission from GaAs cathodes with negative electron affinity (NEA) is applied for producing electron beams with very low longitudinal and transverse velocity spread. GaAs transmission-mode cathodes were activated with Cs and either O[sub 2] or NF[sub 3] in an extremely high vacuum setup (base pressure below 10[sup -12] mbar). Quantum efficiencies of 20%-25% (at 670 nm) and long dark lifetimes (about 1000 h) could be achieved for both types of activation in a reproducible way. Using a method based on the adiabatic transverse expansion of an electron beam in a spatially decreasing magnetic field, the mean transverse energy (MTE) of the photoemitted electrons was measured systematically, recording longitudinal energy distribution curves. Both the MTE and the longitudinal energy spread strongly depend on the value of NEA and the position of the extracted distribution relative to the bulk conduction band minimum. Electrons with energies above the conduction band minimum are thermalized with the lattice temperature of the cathode, while electrons with energies below this level show a non-Maxwellian distribution with enhanced transverse energies. Thus, when extracting all electrons in a current limited emission mode, the MTE increases with the absolute value of NEA and reaches values up to approx. 100 meV. By cutting off the low energy electrons with an external potential barrier, the longitudinal as well as transverse energy spread of the extracted electron ensemble are reduced. The MTE could be reduced down to about 28 meV at room temperature and to about 14 meV at liquid nitrogen temperature. The behavior of the MTE was found equivalent for (Cs, O) and for (Cs, F) activation layers on the same cathode. Conclusions about energy loss and scattering in the emission of photoelectrons from NEA GaAs cathodes are discussed. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]