Behavior of photocathodes on superficial modification by electrical breakdown

Towards dark current suppression in metallic photocathodes by selected-area oxidation

“…The surface roughness of a photocathode may strongly affect its emission characteristics via local electric field enhancement or through reduction of the local work function [ 5 ]. Small-scale roughness and projections are thought to be particularly important for large-area photocathodes [ [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] ]. In our calculations for this paper we assume a field enhancement factor at the low end of the 50–500 range typically cited [ 5 ].…”