Multialkali photocathodes successfully grown on different types of substrates

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QUASAR PhD student Pavel Juarez-Lopez and Dr Lee Jones from ASTeC took part in the process of growing multialkali photocathodes at NSLS-II (National Synchrotron Light Source) in BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratory), NY. USA. They worked in collaboration with John Smedley from LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Mengjia Gaowei from BNL, Daniele Sertore from INFN (Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Sonal Mistry from HZB (Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin), Oksana Chubenko from ASU (Arizona State University), Derek Strom from Max Plank Institute and Alice Galdi from Cornell University.

This was Pavel’s second beam time at BNL, taking part in a collaboration that grew from three institutes to nine. The team worked in beam line 4-ID where they successfully grew CsSb and CsTe photocathodes on different substrates such as Si, Si-C and Ag etalon. Three techniques were used: co-evaporation, sequential and a new technique of an automated co-evaporation Cs3Sb. Future plans include the analysis of XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence), XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), XRR (X-Ray Refraction) and QE (Quantum Efficiency) on each sample and each technique to get a thorough characterisation, which is an important part of Pavel’s thesis.

Pavel Juarez Lopez and Dr Lee Jones.

It was a great opportunity for Pavel and Lee to broaden their knowledge in the growing of multialkali photocathodes and experience the working collaboration culture of another laboratory. They will bring this valuable knowledge back to Daresbury which will match with STFC plans to produce multialkali photocathodes in the VISTA lab at Daresbury.