Author: Batchelor, A.D.
Paper Title Page
TUIOB01 Energetic Condensation Growth of Nb Thin-films 309
 
  • M. Krishnan, C. James, E.F. Valderrama
    AASC, San Leandro, California, USA
  • A.D. Batchelor, P. Maheshwari, F.A. Stevie
    NCSU AIF, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  • H.L. Phillips, C.E. Reece, J.K. Spradlin, A-M. Valente-Feliciano, X. Zhao
    JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
  • K.I. Seo
    NSU, Newport News, Virginia, USA
  • Z.H. Sung
    ASC, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
 
  Funding: Funded by DE-FG02-08ER85162 and DE-SC0004994. The Jefferson Science Associates, LLC effort supported by DE-AC05-06OR23177, with supplemental funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This paper describes Energetic Condensation Growth of Nb films using a cathodic arc plasma, whose 40-120eV ions enable sufficient surface mobility to ensure that the lowest energy state (crystalline structure with minimal defects) is accessible to the film. Hetero-epitaxial films of Nb were grown on a-plane sapphire and MgO crystals with good superconducting properties and crystal size (10mm × 20mm) limited only by substrate size. The substrates were heated to 700 deg C and coated at 300, 500 and 700 deg C. Film thickness varied from ~0.25μm up to >3μm. Residual resistivity ratio (RRR) values (up to a record RRR-554 on MgO and RRR-328 on a-sapphire) vary with substrate annealing and deposition temperatures. XRD spectra and pole figures reveal that RRR increases as the crystal structure of the Nb film becomes more ordered, consistent with fewer defects and hence longer electron mean free path. A transition from Nb(110) to Nb(100) orientation on the MgO(100) lattice occurs at higher temperatures. SIMS depth profiles, EBSD and SEM images complement the XRD data. Crystalline structure in Nb on amorphous borosilicate substrates has implications for future, lower-cost SRF cavities.
 
slides icon Slides TUIOB01 [8.959 MB]  
 
THPO028 SIMS and TEM Analysis of Niobium Bicrystals 776
 
  • P. Maheshwari, A.D. Batchelor, D.P. Griffis, F.A. Stevie, C. Zhou
    NCSU AIF, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  • G. Ciovati, R. Myneni, J.K. Spradlin
    JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
  • M. Rigsbee
    Materials Science and Engineering, Raleigh, USA
 
  The behaviour of interstitial impurities(C,O,N,H) on the Nb surface with respect to grain boundaries may affect cavity performance. Large grain Nb makes possible the selection of bicrystal samples with a well defined grain boundary. In this work, Dynamic SIMS was used to analyze two Nb bicrystal samples, one of them heat treated and the other non heat treated (control). H levels were found to be higher for the non heat treated sample and a difference in the H intensity and sputtering rate was also observed across the grain boundary for both the samples. TEM results showed that the bicrystal interface showed no discontinuity and the oxide layer was uniform across the grain boundary for both the samples. TOF-SIMS imaging was also performed to analyze the distribution of the impurities across the grain boundary in both the samples. C was observed to be segregated along the grain boundary for the control sample, while H and O showed a difference in signal intensity across the grain boundary. Crystal orientation appears to have an important role in the observed sputtering rate and impurity ion signal differences both across the grain boundary and between samples  
 
THPO032 TOF-SIMS Analysis of Hydrogen in Niobium, From 160°K to 475°K 788
 
  • P. Maheshwari, A.D. Batchelor, D.P. Griffis, F.A. Stevie, C. Zhou
    NCSU AIF, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  • G. Ciovati, R. Myneni
    JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
  • M. Rigsbee
    Materials Science and Engineering, Raleigh, USA
 
  Niobium (Nb) is the material of choice for superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities due to its high critical temperature and critical magnetic field. Interstitial impurity elements such as H directly influence the efficiency of these cavities. Quantification of H in Nb is difficult since H is extremely mobile in Nb with a very high diffusion coefficient even at room temperature. In the presented work, Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) was used to characterize H in Nb over a wide temperature range (160°K to 475°K) in situ to check for changes in mobility. Multiple experiments showed that as the specimen temperature is decreased below 300 °K, the H/Nb intensity changes by first increasing and then decreasing drastically at temperatures below 200°K. As specimen temperature is increased from 300°K to 450°K, the H/Nb intensity decreases. Remarkably, the H intensity with respect to Nb increases with time at 475°K (approximately 200oC). Correlation between this data and the H-Nb phase diagram appears to account for the H behaviour.  
poster icon Poster THPO032 [0.125 MB]  
 
THPO074 SRF Multilayer Structures based on NbTiN 920
 
  • A-M. Valente-Feliciano, H.L. Phillips, C.E. Reece, J.K. Spradlin
    JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
  • A.D. Batchelor, F.A. Stevie
    NCSU AIF, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  • R.A. Lukaszew
    The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, USA
  • K.I. Seo
    NSU, Newport News, Virginia, USA
 
  Funding: Authored by Jefferson Science Associates, LLC under U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-06OR23177.
For the past three decades, bulk niobium has been the material of choice for SRF cavities applications. In the recent years, RF cavities performances have approached the theoretical limit for bulk niobium. For further improvement of RF cavity performance for future accelerator projects, an interesting alternative has been recently proposed by Alex Gurevich with the Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor multilayer approach, using the benefit of the higher critical field Hc2 of higher-Tc superconductors without being limited with their lower Hc1. JLab is pursuing this approach with the development of multilayer structures based on NbTiN via magnetron sputtering and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS). Insulators such as, AlN, Al2O3 and MgO are being investigated as candidates for the insulator layers. This paper present the preliminary results on the characteristics of NbTiN and insulator layers and a first attempt of a NbTiN-based multilayer structure on bulk Nb and thick Nb films.