Franck-Condon electron emission from polar semiconductor photocathodes

Abstract

A presented analytical formulation of (optical)phonon-mediated and momentum-resonant Franck-Condon emission of photoexcited electrons from polar semiconductors is shown to be very consistent with (i) the observed emission properties of a Cesiated GaAs(001) photocathode at 808nm [J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 54, 205301 (2021)] and (ii) the measured spectral emission properties of a GaN(0001) photocathode from just below its bandgap energy to 5eV. The theoretical analysis in the parabolic band approximation predicts the form of both the quantum efficiency and mean transverse energy of photoemission as a function of the photocathode's electron affinity and the electron temperature in the vicinity of its emission face. The good agreement between theory and experimental data also suggests that sub-10nm rms surface roughness effects are not significant for polar semiconductor photocathodes.

14 pages including supplemental material, 3 figures, published by Physical Review Applied May 27, 2025

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