GaN-based photocathodes with extremely high quantum efficiency

We have fabricated phototubes with photocathodes consisting of the Mg-doped GaN films. The spectral shapes of the response and the quantum efficiency (QE) strongly depend on the Mg-doping concentration. The calibrated QE of the photocathode is maximized to be 71.9% at a photon energy of 5.4 eV by a Mg-doping concentration of 3.0×1019cm−3. Consequently, a phototube with the GaN-based photocathode is realized to demonstrate a very high QE, more than 50% and sharp cutoff characteristic over three orders of magnitude.