Photocathode enhancement system

Abstract

A photocathode enhancement system includes a cathode plate that is movably positioned relative to an incident optical beam. The emission surface of the cathode plate has an area between about 0.5 cm2 to greater than 100 cm2. The system includes a motion controller that is configured to control the movement of the cathode plate relative to the optical beam, so that the optical beam successively strikes non-overlapping portions of the emission surface, and may reach substantially the entire emission surface over a time period of about 10 seconds to about 100 seconds. The movement of the cathode plate is controlled so that on average, the heat from the optical beam is uniformly distributed over the emission surface of the cathode plate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.