Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
USC, Los Angeles, California, USA
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Photonics integrated photocathodes can result in advanced electron sources for various accelerator applications. In such photocathodes, light can be directed using waveguides and other photonic components on the substrate underneath a photoemissive film to generate electron emission from specific locations at sub-micron scales and at specific times at 100-femtosecond scales along with triggering novel photoemission mechanisms resulting in brighter electron beams and enabling unprecedented spatio-temporal shaping of the emitted electrons. In this work we have demonstrated photoemission confined in the transverse direction using a nanofabricated Si3N4 waveguide underneath a 40-nm thick cesiated GaAs photoemissive film, thus demonstrating a proof of principle feasibility of such photonics integrated photocathodes. This work paves the way to integrate the advances in the field of photonics and nanofabrication with photocathodes to develop better electron sources.
