MOBA07
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Interstitial diffusion of atomic species into the surface of niobium has been found to yield significantly reduced srf surface resistance and lowered quench fields. This talk summarizes systematic efforts to explore the trade-offs of these phenomena with a goal of learning how to maximize Q0 in the 30 MV/m regime. The talk also summarizes N-doped cavity progress at JLab for LCLS-II.
AASC, San Leandro, California, USA
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation (AASC) grows Nb thin films via Coaxial Energetic Deposition (CED) from a cathodic arc plasma. The plasma consists of 60-120eV Nb ions (Nb+ and Nb++) [1] that penetrate a few monolayers into the substrate [2] and enable sufficient surface mobility to ensure that the lowest energy state (crystalline structure with minimal defects) is accessible to the film [3]. One limitation of CED thinfilms is the presence of Nb macroparticles (~0.1-10 microns) that could be deleterious to high field performance of the SRF cavity. One way to remove such macroparticles [4] is to grow a thick film (~3-5 microns), followed by mechanical polishing (MP) using the finest media as might be applied in Centrifugal Barrel Polishing (CBP) to achieve a 0.4 micron surface figure, and an electropolishing (EP) step to remove ~1 micron of Nb that also removes all traces of embedded media in the film. The residual 2-4 micron Nb film should more nearly resemble the surface of a bulk Nb cavity that has been subjected to the same steps. This paper describes experiments conducted on Cu coupons as a prelude to an SRF Cu cavity coating.