Photo-injectors for linear accelerators and free electron laser need a
high brightness photocathode with a dark current lower than 10 mA. Si
licon with array of tips shows a photofield emission current with a co
ntinuous argon laser with a quantum yield of 1%. The ratio eta between
photofield and field emission (dark) current is 20 near the threshold
of Field emission. With a pulsed Nd-YAG laser(lambda = 1.02 mu m puls
es of 35 ps duration) we observe a pure photoemission charge (70 pC) w
ith harmonic 4 (HBAR omega(4) = 4.68 eV) and a photofield charge above
the threshold which is 700 pC with harmonic 2 (HBAR omega(2) = 2.34 e
V). We calculate for the photo-injector CANDELA the dark current follo
wing the method of Loew and Wang, starting from the experimental Fowle
r-Nordheim curve and we find a dark current which is 1 mu A at 3 GHz a
t E(max) = 30 MV/m.