Fundamental characterization and photoemission properties of multi-alkali antimonides for ultra-bright electron sources (FunPhotoSource)

下一代真空电子源的开发需要材料科学、粒子加速器物理学和固态理论的跨学科努力。半导体材料作为光电阴极的应用面临着前所未有的挑战，只有不同背景的研究小组共同努力才能解决这个问题。这正是我们在这个项目中想要实现的，在这个项目中，计算筛选、生长程序、基于同步加速器的光谱分析和电子束诊断协同结合，以获得对最终使材料成为良好光电阴极的特征的基本理解。中国和美国的一些小组已经采取了类似的多学科策略：迄今为止取得的结果表明了这种方法的潜力。通过这个项目，我们不仅要向德国引入一种新的研究模式，将几十年来分离的物理学分支结合起来，这是一个拥有多个顶级同步加速器设施的国家的战略需求。最重要的是，我们希望提高这一领域的实验和理论分析的质量，最终将材料科学中最先进的实验室和数值技术应用于光电阴极设计。在许多科技领域，数据驱动和计算辅助的方法已经取代了繁琐和低效的试错程序，为即将到来的人工智能时代做好了准备。有了这个提议，我们希望将这种做法扩展到电子源的产生，这对我们的社会来说是至关重要的，远远超出了它们在粒子加速器中的应用。

The development of next-generation vacuum electron sources demands interdisciplinary efforts combining materials science, particle accelerator physics, and solid-state theory. The application of semiconducting materials as photocathodes poses unprecedented challenges that can only be tackled with joint efforts from research groups of different backgrounds. This is precisely what we want to realize in this project, where computational screening, growth procedures, synchrotron-based spectroscopic analysis, and electron beam diagnostics are synergistically combined to gain fundamental understanding on what characteristics ultimately make a material a good photocathode. Similar multidisciplinary strategies have been undertaken by a few groups in China and in the USA: The results achieved so far demonstrate the potential of this approach. With this project, we want not only to introduce to Germany a new research paradigm that unites branches of physics that have been segregated for decades and which is strategically demanded by a country that hosts several top-class synchrotron facilities. Most importantly, we want to enhance the quality of the experimental and theoretical analysis in this field, to finally apply to photocathode design the most advanced laboratory and numerical techniques available in materials science. Data-driven and computationally aided approaches have already replaced tedious and inefficient trial-and-error procedures in many scientific and technological fields, making them ready for the incoming era of artificial intelligence. With this proposal, we want to extend this practice also to the generation of electron sources that are becoming essential for our society well beyond their applications in particle accelerators.