Cryogenic Enhancement of Electron Spin Polarization from a Strained GaAs/GaAsP Superlattice Photocathode
Abstract
We report electron spin polarization of 95.0 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 2.4 (sys)% from a strained GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathode grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and cooled to dry-ice temperature (195 K). We achieved this polarization with 97.8% circularly polarized excitation light and a quantum efficiency of 0.7% at the peak polarization wavelength. This measurement exceeds the values of previously reported GaAs-based photocathode polarizations, which have clustered near 92% for two decades. We vary the temperature of the cathode and measure the polarization and quantum-efficiency spectra at 295 K, 273 K, 195 K, and 77 K. The polarization rises from 91.2(1)% at 295 K to its maximum at 195 K, while the spectral peak shifts from 775 nm to 739 nm (78 meV) over the full temperature range, tracking the widening band gap. The spectra probe two depolarization mechanisms: a thermalized transport channel that is suppressed on cooling, and energy-dependent hot-electron relaxation that persists and sets the low-temperature saturation. The polarization recovers after a full cooling and warmup cycle and is stable while the quantum efficiency decays, which disfavors surface energy filtering as the origin of the gain. These results indicate that modest cooling to 195 K, for which dry ice suffices, is a practical route to higher-polarization GaAs-based electron sources.
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BibTeX
@misc{grau2026cryogenic,
title = {{Cryogenic Enhancement of Electron Spin Polarization from a Strained GaAs/GaAsP Superlattice Photocathode}},
author = {Matt Grau and Colin Kirk and Greg Blume and John Hill and Sushil Poudel and Alimohammed Kachwala and Marcy Stutzman and Joseph Michael Grames and Sylvain Marsillac and Matt Poelker},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00212},
eprint = {2609.00212},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00212},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cryogenic Enhancement of Electron Spin Polarization from a Strained GaAs/GaAsP Superlattice Photocathode
AU - Matt Grau
AU - Colin Kirk
AU - Greg Blume
AU - John Hill
AU - Sushil Poudel
AU - Alimohammed Kachwala
AU - Marcy Stutzman
AU - Joseph Michael Grames
AU - Sylvain Marsillac
AU - Matt Poelker
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00212
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00212
AB - We report electron spin polarization of 95.0 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 2.4 (sys)% from a strained GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathode grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and cooled to dry-ice temperature (195 K). We achieved this polarization with 97.8% circularly polarized excitation light and a quantum efficiency of 0.7% at the peak polarization wavelength. This measurement exceeds the values of previously reported GaAs-based photocathode polarizations, which have clustered near 92% for two decades. We vary the temperature of the cathode and measure the polarization and quantum-efficiency spectra at 295 K, 273 K, 195 K, and 77 K. The polarization rises from 91.2(1)% at 295 K to its maximum at 195 K, while the spectral peak shifts from 775 nm to 739 nm (78 meV) over the full temperature range, tracking the widening band gap. The spectra probe two depolarization mechanisms: a thermalized transport channel that is suppressed on cooling, and energy-dependent hot-electron relaxation that persists and sets the low-temperature saturation. The polarization recovers after a full cooling and warmup cycle and is stable while the quantum efficiency decays, which disfavors surface energy filtering as the origin of the gain. These results indicate that modest cooling to 195 K, for which dry ice suffices, is a practical route to higher-polarization GaAs-based electron sources.
ER -