Ion-beam-assisted growth of cesium-antimonide photocathodes

We report on the novel use of a Cs+ ion gun for an ion-beam-assisted molecular-beam-epitaxy (IBA-MBE) method to sequentially deposit Cs-Sb cathodes on room temperature substrates as opposed to the standard technique of thermal evaporation on elevated-temperature substrates. The details of the ultrahigh-vacuum chamber, the Cs+ ion source, and the growth technique are elaborated. The final quantum efficiency (QE) is reasonably good for Cs-Sb cathodes grown on two different substrates—Si (100) and strontium titanate—and is comparable to the QE of cathodes grown using thermal sources. This suggests that IBA-MBE could be a viable alternative to grow alkali-antimonides without substrate heating, paving the way for the growth of epitaxial alkali-antimonides in a more reproducible fashion, which may help improve the efficiency of photon detectors and accelerator applications that use alkali-antimonides as electron sources.