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We present measurements of the transverse and longitudinal energy spread of photoelectrons emitted from a GaAsP photocathode as a function of its degradation state. The cathode was initially activated to a state of negative electron affinity in our photocathode preparation facility, achieving a quantum efficiency of 3% at a wavelength of 532 nm. It was then transferred under XHV conditions to our transverse energy spread spectrometer, where energy spread measurements were made while the photocathode was progressively degraded through a controlled exposure to oxygen. Data have been collected under photocathode illumination at 532 nm, and the changing photoelectron energy distribution associated with the changes in the level of electron affinity due to quantum efficiency degradation through an exposure to 0.25 L of oxygen has been demonstrated. Our experiments have shown that GaAsP boasts a significantly higher resilience to degradation under exposure to oxygen than a GaAs photocathode, though it does exhibit a higher level of mean transverse energy. Coupled with the favourable published data on GaAsP photoemission response times, we conclude that GaAsP is a viable candidate material as a particle accelerator electron source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Describes the modification of the valence band in elastically compressed pseudomorphic InGaP epilayers grown on GaAs(111)B substrates. Calculation of film composition; Shift and splitting of the valence band; X-ray diffraction; Effect of strain on the threshold of optical transitions.