From Phys.org
Strontium titanate has historically been overlooked as a potential photocathode candidate, says Arun Bansil, university distinguished professor of physics at Northeastern, who co-authored the study.
"This material has many other uses and applications," Bansil says.
Using several photon energies in the 10 eV (electron-volt) range, researchers were able to produce a "very intense coherent secondary photoemission" stronger than anything seen before, Bansil says.
"This is a big deal because there is no mechanism within our existing understanding of photoemission that can produce such an effect," Bansil says. "In other words, we don't have any theory for this, currently, so it is a miraculous breakthrough in that sense."
This is very interesting… and should have some important implications. Love it when we learn something we didn’t expect at all.
