Influence of the antireflection, window, and active layers on optical properties of exponential-doping transmission-mode GaAs photocathode modules

Abstract In order to well study the influence of the thickness and doping concentration on optical properties of transmission-mode GaAs photocathode, three exponential-doping and one uniform-doping photocathode modules were prepared by molecular beam epitaxy with a structure of glass/Si 3 N 4 /Ga 1 −  x Al x As/GaAs. By use of the spectrophotometer, the optical properties were separately measured including the reflectivity and transmissivity curves. Based on thin film optical principles, the optical properties and their integral values are calculated by matrix formula for the four-layer photocathode module. The result shows that the antireflection and window layers affect the peak and valley of the optical property curves and the active layer influences the absorptivity values of the transmission-mode cathode modules. The photocathode module has high absorptivity within the response waveband when the optimal module has the Si 3 N 4 antireflection layer of 0.1 μm, the Ga 1 −  x Al x As window layer of more than 0.4 μm, and the GaAs active layer of 1.5 μm–2 μm and low average doping concentration.