A Masked Photocathode in a Photoinjector

In this paper, we propose a masked photocathode inside a photoinjector for generating high brightness electron beam. Instead of mounting the photocathode onto an electrode, an electrode with small hole is used as a mask to shield the photocathode from the accelerating vacuum chamber. Using such a masked photocathode will make the replacement of photocathode material easy by rotating the photocathode behind the electrode into the hole. Furthermore, this helps reduce the dark current or secondary electron emission from the photocathode material. The masked photocathode also provides transverse cut-off to a Gaussian laser beam that reduces electron beam emittance growth from nonlinear space-charge effects.