First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode
Abstract The pursuit to operate photocathodes at high accelerating gradients to increase brightness of electron beams is gaining interests within the accelerator community, particularly for applications such as free electron lasers (FEL) and compact accelerators. Cesium telluride (Cs2Te) is a widely...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-85054-z |
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| author | Gaoxue Wang Jinlin Zhang Chengkun Huang Dimitre A. Dimitrov Anna Alexander Evgenya I. Simakov |
| author_facet | Gaoxue Wang Jinlin Zhang Chengkun Huang Dimitre A. Dimitrov Anna Alexander Evgenya I. Simakov |
| author_sort | Gaoxue Wang |
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| description | Abstract The pursuit to operate photocathodes at high accelerating gradients to increase brightness of electron beams is gaining interests within the accelerator community, particularly for applications such as free electron lasers (FEL) and compact accelerators. Cesium telluride (Cs2Te) is a widely used photocathode material and it is presumed to offer resilience to higher gradients because of its wider band gap compared to other semiconductors. Despite its advantages, crucial material properties of Cs2Te remain largely unknown both in theory and experiments. In this study, we employ first-principles calculations to provide detailed structural, elastic, electronic and transport properties of Cs2Te. It is found that Cs2Te has an intrinsic mobility of 20 cm2/Vs for electrons and 2.0 cm2/Vs for holes at room temperature. The low mobility is primarily limited by the strong polar optical phonon scattering. Cs2Te also exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/(m*K) at room temperature. Based on the energy gain/loss balance under external field and electron–phonon scattering, we predict that Cs2Te has a dielectric breakdown field in the range from ~ 60 to ~ 132 MV/m at room temperature dependent on the doping level of Cs2Te. Our results are crucial to advance the understanding of applicability of Cs2Te photocathodes for high-gradient operation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c39e53e6847744b09918143c479eef92 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
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| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-c39e53e6847744b09918143c479eef922025-01-26T12:31:28ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-01-0115111110.1038/s41598-024-85054-zFirst-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathodeGaoxue Wang0Jinlin Zhang1Chengkun Huang2Dimitre A. Dimitrov3Anna Alexander4Evgenya I. Simakov5Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryAccelerator Operations and Technology Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryAccelerator Operations and Technology Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryAccelerator Operations and Technology Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryAccelerator Operations and Technology Division, Los Alamos National LaboratoryAbstract The pursuit to operate photocathodes at high accelerating gradients to increase brightness of electron beams is gaining interests within the accelerator community, particularly for applications such as free electron lasers (FEL) and compact accelerators. Cesium telluride (Cs2Te) is a widely used photocathode material and it is presumed to offer resilience to higher gradients because of its wider band gap compared to other semiconductors. Despite its advantages, crucial material properties of Cs2Te remain largely unknown both in theory and experiments. In this study, we employ first-principles calculations to provide detailed structural, elastic, electronic and transport properties of Cs2Te. It is found that Cs2Te has an intrinsic mobility of 20 cm2/Vs for electrons and 2.0 cm2/Vs for holes at room temperature. The low mobility is primarily limited by the strong polar optical phonon scattering. Cs2Te also exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/(m*K) at room temperature. Based on the energy gain/loss balance under external field and electron–phonon scattering, we predict that Cs2Te has a dielectric breakdown field in the range from ~ 60 to ~ 132 MV/m at room temperature dependent on the doping level of Cs2Te. Our results are crucial to advance the understanding of applicability of Cs2Te photocathodes for high-gradient operation.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-85054-z |
| spellingShingle | Gaoxue Wang Jinlin Zhang Chengkun Huang Dimitre A. Dimitrov Anna Alexander Evgenya I. Simakov First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode Scientific Reports |
| title | First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode |
| title_full | First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode |
| title_fullStr | First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode |
| title_full_unstemmed | First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode |
| title_short | First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic, transport properties, and dielectric breakdown of Cs2Te photocathode |
| title_sort | first principles study of structural elastic electronic transport properties and dielectric breakdown of cs2te photocathode |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-85054-z |
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