JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
A degradation of the unloaded quality factor is commonly observed above about 100 mT in elliptical niobium cavities. The cause of this degradation has not been fully understood yet, but the empirically found solution of heating to about 100-120 C for 24-48 hrs. eliminates the degradation in electropolished fine grain or large grain niobium cavities. While numerous experiments related to this phenomenon have been done at 1.3 GHz and 1.5 GHz, little data exists at other frequencies, and the frequency dependence of this degradation is not clear. We have measured the unloaded quality factor of 3 GHz fine grain niobium cavities, which were chemically polished as the final treatment before RF tests in a vertical Dewar and observed the characteristic degradation in two cavities. The measurement of the quality factor degradation at different bath temperatures points to a field-dependent rather than a temperature-related effect.
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA
Exploiting both the new Nb3Sn coating system and the materials characterization tools nearby, we report our progress in low-loss Nb3Sn films development. Nb3Sn films a few micrometers thick were grown on Nb coupons as well as single- and multi-cell cavities by the Sn-diffusion technique. Films structure and composition were investigated on coated samples and cavity cutouts with characterization tools including SEM/EDS/EBSD, AFM, XPS, SIMS towards correlating film growth and RF loss to material properties and deposition parameters. Cavity coating efforts focused on establishing techniques for coating progressively more complicated RF structures, and understanding limiting mechanisms in coated cavities. Nb3Sn coated 1.5 GHz 1-cell and 1.3 GHz 2-cell cavities have shown quality factors of 1010 at 4.3 K, with several cavities reaching above Eacc = 10 MV/m. The dominant limiting mechanisms were low field quenches and quality factor degradation above 8 MV/m. The surface data indicates a near-stoichiometric Nb3Sn consistent with the transition temperature and gap measurements. The Nb3Sn layer is covered with Nb2O5 and SnO2 native oxides and has little memory of the pre-coating surface.
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
ANL, Argonne, Illinois, USA
The RF performance of bulk Nb cavities has continuously improved over the years and is approaching the intrinsic limit of the material. Although some margin seems still available with processes such as N surface doping, long term solutions for SRF surfaces efficiency enhancement need to be pursued. Over the years, Nb/Cu technology, despite its shortcomings, has positioned itself as an alternative route for the future of superconducting structures used in accelerators. Significant progress has been made in recent years in the development of energetic deposition techniques such as Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma deposition. Nb films with very high material quality have then been produced by varying the deposition energy alluding to the promise of performing SRF films. This paper presents RF measurements, correlated with surface and material properties, for Nb films showing how, by varying the film growth conditions, the Nb film quality and surface resistance can be altered and how the Q-slope can be eventually overcome.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
The structure and composition of Nb3Sn films obtained by diffusion coating niobium coupons and SRF cavities were investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD), including native surfaces, depth profiles and cross-sections. We find that the native surface oxide is significantly tin-rich, we have measured depth profiles. We find that the grains apparent in the SEM images are individual crystallites having no evident relationship to the substrate or each other.
The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
The potential for energy savings and for increased gradient continues to bring attention to Nb3Sn-coated niobium as a future SRF cavity technology. We prepared these materials by vapor diffusion coating on polycrystalline and single crystal niobium. The effect of changing substrate preparation, coating parameters and post-treatment were examined by AFM and SEM/EDS. The AFM data were analyzed in terms of power spectral density (PSD). We found little effect of pre-coating topography on the result. The PSD’s show some surprising kinship to those obtained from BCP-treated surfaces. SEM/EDS revealed no composition non-uniformities at the micron scale.
ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Results of RF tests of Nb3Sn thin film samples related to the superconducting multilayer coating development are presented. We have investigated thin film samples of Nb3Sn/Al2O3/Nb with Nb3Sn layer thicknesses of 50 nm and 100 nm using a Surface Impedance Characterization system. These samples were measured in the temperature range 4 K-19 K, where significant screening by Nb3Sn layers was observed below 16-17 K, consistent with the bulk critical temperature of Nb3Sn.
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, USA