Fabrication of alkali halide UV photocathodes by pulsed laser deposition

A technique has been proposed for the fabrication of atmospheric corrosion resistant alkali halide UV photocathodes by pulsed laser deposition. We produced photocathodes with a highly homogeneous photoemissive layer well-adherent to the substrate. The photocathodes were mounted in a vacuum photodiode, and a tungsten grid was used as an anode. Using pulsed UV lasers, we carried out experiments aimed at evaluating the quantum efficiency of the photocathodes. With a dc voltage applied between the photocathode and anode grid, we measured a shunt signal proportional to the total charge emitted by the cathode exposed to UV laser light. The proposed deposition technique enables one to produce photocathodes with photoemissive layers highly uniform in quantum efficiency, which is its main advantage over thin film growth by resistive evaporation.