Photoemission characteristics of graded band-gap AlGaAs/GaAs wire photocathode

A photoemission model of graded band-gap AlGaAs/GaAs wire NEA photocathode is developed based on the numerical solution of coupled Poisson and continuity equations. The emission current density and integral sensitivity of graded band-gap AlGaAs/GaAs wire photocathode as a function of incident light wavelength, Al composition range, and wire length, are simulated according to the model. The simulation results show that, compared with the GaAs (Al composition 0) wire photocathode, the peak integral sensitivities for the photocathodes with wire width of 1 µm and linearly graded Al composition ranges of 0 to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 increase by 29.5%, 38.5%, 42.1%, and 43.8%, respectively. The optimum wire lengths are 4.7, 5.9, 7.1, and 8.4 µm for the wire photocathodes with Al composition ranges of 0 to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4, respectively.