17–22 May 2026
C.I.D
Europe/Zurich timezone

Delivery of Caesium Telluride Photocathodes to the CLARA Accelerator at Daresbury Laboratory

THP2143
21 May 2026, 16:00
2h
C.I.D

C.I.D

Deauville, France
Poster Presentation MC2.T02: Photon sources: Electron Sources Poster session

Speaker

Hugh Churn (Science and Technology Facilities Council)

Description

High performance electron accelerators require high brightness electron beams. To achieve this a photocathode with a high quantum efficiency (QE) and low intrinsic emittance is required while also being robust with a long lifetime and low dark current. Photocathodes based on alkali metals can fulfil these requirements and, as such, are an important area of research for the accelerator physics community.

The Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA) at STFC Daresbury Laboratory has recently been upgraded from a copper photocathode to a caesium telluride photocathode. This has enabled a significant increase in bunch charge for a fraction of the laser power. We discuss the process of manufacturing and polishing molybdenum plugs followed by details of the caesium telluride deposition. Three photocathodes have been provided to the CLARA facility with extremely consistent and high quantum efficiency. One of these cathodes is now operating successfully within the accelerator with a QE of 11.7% and emittance of approximately 1.2 mm mrad.

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Author

Hugh Churn (Science and Technology Facilities Council)

Co-authors

Christopher Benjamin (Science and Technology Facilities Council) Mr Dominic Sterland (University of Warwick) Dr Lee Jones (Science and Technology Facilities Council)

Presentation materials

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