Daniel Velazquez, Ph.D. candidate in physics, will present “Synthesis of Ultra-Thin Single Crystal MgO/Ag/MgO Multilayer for Controlled Photocathode Emissive Properties” at the American Physical Society (APS) annual meeting on Friday, March 6 in San Antonio.

The presentation is based on research by Velazquez and Rachel Seibert, Ph.D. candidate in physics; Jeff Terry, professor of physics; Linda Spentzouris, associate professor of physics; and Zikri Yusof, research associate professor of physics.

Developments of new accelerator technologies such as free-electron lasers and high-energy accelerators, among others, continuously set requirements for particle sources to produce higher beam flux. The emissive properties of these photocathodes directly influence the accelerator beam flux and thus the performance of the accelerator as a whole. The team’s goal was to test the possibility of engineering the photoemissive properties of materials for potential use as photocathodes.

Multilayered MgO/Ag/MgO in the crystallographic orientations (001) and (111) were grown on Ag/MgO(001) and Ag/Si(111), respectively using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). A series of surface probing techniques were used to characterize physical, chemical and photoemissive properties of the films.