Evidence for Anti-Dowell-Schmerge Process in Photoemission from Diamond

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of anti-Dowell-Schmerge behavior in diamond photocathodes, where the mean transverse energy decreases with photon energy, contrasting typical DS law predictions, with implications for high-brightness electron sources.

Contribution

It demonstrates that UNCD and diamond photocathodes exhibit anti-DS behavior, and shows how grain boundary engineering can switch their emission characteristics.

Findings

UNCD exhibits decreasing MTE with increasing photon energy.

Control over grain boundaries tunes the MTE behavior.

High QE and low MTE can be achieved simultaneously in UNCD.

Abstract

A great number of metal and semiconductor photocathodes, which are of high practical importance for photoinjector applications, closely follow the 1/3 gradient Dowell-Schmerge (DS) law describing the spectral dependence of the mean transverse energy ($MTE$), $viz.$ $MTE$ as a function of the incident laser photon energy. However, some (rare) semiconductor photocathodes show $MTE$ trends that are significantly different. For example, spectral $MTE$ measurements on PbTe, BaLaSnO or Hf/HfO$_2$ have clearly demonstrated trends that can differ from DS law being non-monotonic, slower growing, or displaying constant $MTE$ versus laser photon energy. We have discovered that $n$-type ultra-nano-crystalline diamond (UNCD) and single crystal diamond are anti-DS photocathodes in that their $MTE$ decreases with the incident photon energy. It was previously established that UNCD is a highly emissive material in the near UV such that quantum efficiency ($QE$) grows with the laser photon energy. The unique and novel combination of high increasing $QE$ and low decreasing $MTE$ of UNCD may pave the way to desired high brightness electron beams, through operation well above its work function which fundamentally differs from 'Boltzmann tail' operation near the photoemission threshold. One other remarkable result followed: As UNCD is a $sp^2$ grain boundary diluted $sp^3$ diamond matrix, control over grain boundary/grain engineering in the material's synthesis allowed for the production of different kinds of UNCD. The resultant tuning of the $sp^3$-to-$sp^2$ ratio in different UNCD photocathodes allowed for switching between canonical +1/3 DS and approximate --1/3 gradient 'anti-DS' behavior.