Quantum Efficiency of Photoemission from Biased Metal Surfaces with Lasers from UV to NIR

In this paper, we study photoelectron emission from biased metal surfaces with laser wavelengths from 200 nm to 1200 nm (i.e. UV to NIR), using exact analytical solution of one-dimensional (1D) time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). The dominant electron emission process and quantum efficiency (QE) show strong dependence on the laser intensity, wavelength, and dc field. It is found that QE can be increased nonlinearly by electronic heating due to intense sub-picosecond laser pulses, with the strongest increase near laser wavelengths at which the cathode work function is an integer multiple of the corresponding photon energy. The quantum model with laser heating effects reproduces previous experimental results, which further validates the quantum model and highlights the importance of laser heating.