Fundamental characterization and photoemission properties of multi-alkali antimonides for ultra-bright electron sources (FunPhotoSource)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Caterina Cocchi; Professor Thorsten Kamps, since 6/2024
• Subject Area: Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics ; Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490940284

The development of next-generation vacuum electron sources demands interdisciplinary efforts combining materials science, particle accelerator physics, and solid-state theory. The application of semiconducting materials as photocathodes poses unprecedented challenges that can only be tackled with joint efforts from research groups of different backgrounds. This is precisely what we want to realize in this project, where computational screening, growth procedures, synchrotron-based spectroscopic analysis, and electron beam diagnostics are synergistically combined to gain fundamental understanding on what characteristics ultimately make a material a good photocathode. Similar multidisciplinary strategies have been undertaken by a few groups in China and in the USA: The results achieved so far demonstrate the potential of this approach. With this project, we want not only to introduce to Germany a new research paradigm that unites branches of physics that have been segregated for decades and which is strategically demanded by a country that hosts several top-class synchrotron facilities. Most importantly, we want to enhance the quality of the experimental and theoretical analysis in this field, to finally apply to photocathode design the most advanced laboratory and numerical techniques available in materials science. Data-driven and computationally aided approaches have already replaced tedious and inefficient trial-and-error procedures in many scientific and technological fields, making them ready for the incoming era of artificial intelligence. With this proposal, we want to extend this practice also to the generation of electron sources that are becoming essential for our society well beyond their applications in particle accelerators.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Dr. Sonal Mistry, until 6/2024