THBA01
ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
A new In-situ plasma processing technique is being developed at the SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) to improve the performance of the cavities in operation. The technique utilizes a reactive low-density room-temperature plasma to remove top-surface hydrocarbons. This increases the work function of the cavity surface and reduces the overall amount of electron activity; In particular it increases the field-emission onset, which enables to operate a cavity at higher accelerating gradient. Development of the basic plasma processing parameters and effect on the Niobium surface can be found elsewhere *,**. Details on the results for in-situ plasma processing of dressed cavities in the SNS HTA (horizontal test apparatus) will be reported here.
* M. Doleans et al. “Plasma processing R&D for the SNS superconducting linac RF cavities” SRF2013 Proceedings
** P. V. Tyagi, et al. “Surface Studies of Plasma Processed Nb samples” These proceedings
