Experimental development of low-emittance field-emission electron sources

Field-emission electron sources are capable of extreme brightness when excited by static or time-dependent electromagnetic fields. We are currently developing a cathode test stand operating in the DC mode with the possibility to trigger the emission using ultra-short (∼100-fs) laser pulses. This paper describes the status of an experiment to investigate field emission using cathodes under development at Northern Illinois University in collaboration with the Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials.