Performance of a CsI photocathode in a hard x-ray streak camera

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Abstract
The performance of a CsI photocathode for hard x rays (8–46 keV) was compared to a Au photocathode using synchrotron radiation. We found that the sensitivity of CsI (100 nm thick) is 20–100 times higher than that of Au (30 nm thick), depending on the photon energy. The time response for 40 ps pulses is also improved slightly using CsI due to its narrower secondary electron energy spread. The study was performed in a streak camera environment; thus the results obtained include the instrumental effects of the camera and directly show the real performance of the cathodes for streak cameras. Although the question of material stiffness still remains for CsI, no degradation of cathode performance was observed during the present study.