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arXiv · 2607.18420

Electron escape probability in high-efficiency photocathodes measured by reverse-injection photovoltage

S. A. Rozhkov·V. V. Bakin·D. A. Kustov·V. S. Khoroshilov·V. L. Alperovich·O. E. Tereshchenko·H. E. Scheibler
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Abstract

The characterization of electron transfer through the emitting surface is of crucial importance for optimizing existing and developing new photocathodes. Here we propose and develop a method for the direct determination of the electron escape probability in high-efficiency semiconductor photocathodes. The proposed method is based on the variations in the surface photovoltage upon the injection of emitted photoelectrons back into a photocathode (``reverse injection"), which is induced by the polarity reversal of the external electric field. We demonstrate the method on \textit{p}-GaN(Cs,O) photocathodes with negative effective electron affinity by measuring the evolution of photoemission quantum efficiency upon the reverse injection of emitted electrons.

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S. A. Rozhkov, V. V. Bakin, D. A. Kustov, V. S. Khoroshilov, V. L. Alperovich, O. E. Tereshchenko, H. E. Scheibler. 2026-07-20. Electron escape probability in high-efficiency photocathodes measured by reverse-injection photovoltage. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18420

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