Growth and characterization of rugged sodium potassium antimonide photocathodes for high brilliance photoinjector

Abstract

Sodium potassium antimonide photocathodes with Quantum Efficiency (QE) in the range of few percent have been grown, and their photoemission properties are measured. We report the intrinsic emittance and response time of electron bunches extracted from this material. It is possible to recover the QE of an overheated cathode by simple potassium addition, and the cathode is rugged enough to deliver tens of mA of average current with no or minimal degradation.