Magnetic field enhancement has been studied in the past through replica and cavity cutting. Considerable progress of niobium cavity manufacturing and processing has been made since then. Wide variety of single cell cavities has been analyzed through replica technique. Their RF performances were compared in corresponding to geometric RF surface quality. It is concluded that the surface roughness affects cavity performance mostly in secondary role. The other factors must have played primary role in cavity performance limitations.
Results are presented on an alternative cavity to the ILC baseline design of TESLA-style SRF main accelerating linacs. This re-optimised shape enhances the bandwidth of the accelerating mode and has reduced surface electric and magnetic fields, compared to the baseline design and some current high gradient designs. Detailed simulations on the e.m. fields for the New Low Surface Field (NLSF) cavity, including end-cell and coupler designs, are reported. The re-distributed dipole modes are also discussed.
Historically, many advances in superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities destined for use in advanced particle accelerators have come empirically, through the iterative procedure of modifying processing and then performance testing. However, material structure is directly responsible for performance. Understanding, the link between processing, structure, and performance will streamline and accelerate the research process. In order to connect processing, structure, and performance, accurate and robust materials characterization methods are needed. Here one such method, SIMS, is discussed w…
The PIP II linear accelerator includes different types of niobium SRF cavities including 650 MHz elliptical low (0.61) and high (0.92) beta cavities. The elliptical cavity surface is processed with the electropolishing method. The elliptical cavities especially the low-$β$ 650 MHz cavities showed a rough equator surface after the EP was per-formed with the standard EP conditions. This work was focused to study the effect of different EP parameters, including cathode surface area, temperature and voltage, and optimize them to improve the cavity surface.
Nb$_3$Sn has great potential to become the material of choice for fabrication of SRF cavities. The higher critical temperature of Nb$_3$Sn potentially allows for an increased operational temperature in SRF cavities, which could enable tremendous simplification of cryogenic system, leading to significant cost reduction. We present extended characterization of a Nb$_3$Sn coated Nb cavity prepared at Cornell University. Using combination of thermometry during cavity RF measurements, and structural and analytical characterization of the cavity cutouts, we discover Nb$_3$Sn coating flaws responsibl…
There's presently a growing demand for cw high current proton and deuteron linear accelerators based on superconducting technology to better support various fields of science. Up to now, high order modes (HOMs) studies induced by ion beams with current higher than 10 mA and even 100 mA accelerated by low beta non-elliptical Superconducting rf (SRF) cavities are very few. Peking University has recently designed and fabricated a beta=0.09 162.5 MHz HWR cavity to study the key physics problems in accelerating beam with current of about 100mA. This paper focuses on the study of the HOM-induced pow…
Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) accelerating cavities are a promising technology for compact, high-power, MeV-scale accelerators, providing continuous beam operation for a wide range of potential applications in industry, medicine, national security, and science. However, SRF cavities have traditionally been cooled using complex and expensive cryogenic infrastructure, which has been a significant obstacle in employing this powerful technology in small-scale systems. With the recent progress on high-performance Nb$_3$Sn-coated SRF cavities and the introduction of cryocoolers, which can pr…
SRF cavity quality factors can be accurately measured using RF-power based techniques only when the cavity is very close to critically coupled. This limitation is from systematic errors driven by non-ideal RF components. When the cavity is not close to critically coupled, these systematic effects limit the accuracy of the measurements. The combination of the complex base-band envelopes of the cavity RF signals in combination with a trombone in the circuit allow the relative calibration of the RF signals to be extracted from the data and systematic effects to be characterized and suppressed. Th…
The LCLS-II HE superconducting linac can produce multi-energy beams by supporting multiple undulator lines simultaneously. This could be achieved by using the cavity SRF tuner in the off-frequency detune mode. This off-frequency operation method was tested in the verification cryomodule (vCM) and CM 1 at Fermilab at 2 K. In both cases, the tuners achieved a frequency shift of -565$\pm$80 kHz. This study will discuss cavity frequency during each step as it is being assembled in the cryomodule string and finally when it is being tested at 2 K. Tracking the cavity frequency helped enable the tune…
In this article a new idea is proposed by PKU group to improve the RF superconductive property of niobium cavity. Rare earth elements like scandium and yttrium are doped into ingot niobium during the smelting processes. A series of experiments have been done since 2010, and the preliminary testing results show that the magnetic property of niobium materials has been changed with different doping elements and proportions while the superconductive transition temperature almost does not change. Then a large ingot niobium doped with scandium was melted. RRR and mechanical properties were measured.…
There are many stages in the LLRF and RF system development process for any new accelerator that can take advantage of hardware emulation of the high-power RF system and RF cavities. LLRF development, bench testing, control system development and testing of installed systems must happen well before SRF cavities are available for test. The PIP-II Linac has three frequencies of SRF cavities, 162.5 MHz, 325 MHz and 650 MHz and a simple analog emulator design has been chosen that can meet the cavity bandwidth requirements, provide tuning errors to emulate Lorentz force detuning and microphonics fo…
The recent achievements in the performance of superconducting RF (SRF) photoinjectors have opened a new era in the development of the reliable high-brightness CW electron sources. While the SRF guns become one of the most promising technologies, the compatibility of SRF environment with the complex photocathodes remains on the forefront of the modern accelerator science. The SRF cavities operate at cryogenic temperatures providing the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment highly beneficial for the photocathode performance. However, the necessity to keep the photocathodes at room temperature whil…
Vertical test is a commonly used experimental method to qualify Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities. Taking the experiences at Jefferson Lab (JLab) in US for example, over thousand of vertical tests have been performed on over 500 different cavities up to now [1]. Most of the tests at JLab followed the method as described in [1], but all the uncertainties of the calculated quality factors as well as the gradients were in-accurate due to the wrong algorithm used. In this paper, a first-principle method was applied to analyze the uncertainty of the data, and the results were compared …
A Temperature mapping (T-map) system for Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities consists of a thermometer array positioned precisely on an exterior cavity wall, capable of detecting small increases in temperature; therefore it is a powerful tool for research on the quality factor (Q0) of SRF cavities. A new multi-cell T-mapping system is has been developed at Cornell University. The system has nearly two thousand thermometers to cover 7-cell SRF cavities for Cornell ERL project. A new multiplexing scheme was adopted to reduce number of wires. A 1mK resolution of the temperature increas…
The main linacs of the ILC consist of nine-cell cavities based on the TESLA design. In order to facilitate reaching higher gradients we have re-designed the cavity shape. This leads to a reduction, comparable to several current designs, in both the ratio of the surface electric field to the accelerating field (Es/Ea) and the magnetic field to the accelerating field (Bs/Ea). The bandwidth of the accelerating mode is also optimized. This new shape, which we refer to as the New Low Surface Field (NLSF) design, bears comparison with the Ichiro, Re-entrant and LSF designs.
To improve RHIC luminosity for heavy ion beam energies below 10 GeV/nucleon, the Low Energy RHIC electron Cooler (LEReC) is currently under commissioning at BNL. The Linac of LEReC is designed to deliver a 1.6 MeV to 2.6 MeV electron beam, with rms dp/p less than 5e-4. A 704 MHz superconducting radio frequency (SRF) booster cavity in this Linac provides up to 2.2 MeV accelerating voltage. With such a low energy and very demanding energy spread requirement, control of Higher Order Modes (HOMs) in the cavities becomes critical and needs to be carefully evaluated to ensure minimum impact on the b…
Cool-down dynamics of superconducting accelerating cavities became particularly important for obtaining very high quality factors in SRF cavities. Previous studies proved that when cavity is cooled fast, the quality factor is higher than when cavity is cooled slowly. This has been discovered to derive from the fact that a fast cool-down allows better magnetic field expulsion during the superconducting transition. In this paper we describe the first experiment where the temperature all around the cavity was mapped during the cavity cool-down through transition temperature, proving the existence…
An apparatus and a method are described for plasma etching of the inner surface of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. Accelerator SRF cavities are formed into a variable-diameter cylindrical structure made of bulk niobium, for resonant generation of the particle accelerating field. The etch rate non-uniformity due to depletion of the radicals has been overcome by the simultaneous movement of the gas flow inlet and the inner electrode. An effective shape of the inner electrode to reduce the plasma asymmetry for the coaxial cylindrical rf plasma reactor is determined and implemented…
We suggest a program to establish theoretical performance limits of srf cavities using modern theories of nonequilibrium superconductivity under a strong electromagnetic field. These theories will be used to calculate the main parameter of merit of srf cavities: the quality factor Q and its dependencies on the field amplitude, temperature and frequency, which would allow us to understand how far the srf cavity performance could be pushed from the current state of the art. Given that the quality factor is determined by multiple mechanisms operating on very different length scales, we will addre…
High-beta superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) elliptical cavities are being developed for several accelerator projects including Project X, the European XFEL, and the International Linear Collider (ILC). Fermilab has recently established an extensive infrastructure for SRF cavity R&D for future accelerators, including cavity surface processing and testing and cavity assembly into cryomodules. Some highlights of the global effort in SRF R&D toward improving cavity performance, and Fermilab SRF cavity R&D in the context of global projects are reviewed.
The off-frequency detune method is being considered for application in the LCLS-II-HE superconducting linac to produce multi-energy electron beams for supporting multiple undulator lines simultaneously [1]. Design of the tuner has been changed to deliver roughly 3 times larger frequency tuning range. Working requirements for off-frequency operation (OFO) state that cavities be tuned at least twice a month. This specification requires the in-crease of the tuner longevity by 20 times compared with LCLS-II demands. Accelerated longevity tests of the LCLS-II HE dressed cavity with tuner were condu…
Superconducting cavities (SRF) are widely used in new generation particle accelerators, increasing the requirements and specifications for new designs. The LLRF control system, including the detuning control due to mechanical perturbations, must fulfill more exigent specifications, and its design have gained increasing relevance. The Helmhoz Zentrum Berlin, among others, have been working in the development of simulation and Hardware-in-the-loop tools to facilitate the test of control algorithms. The main goal of this work is to use an existing cavity model in CW mode, a Tesla cavity including…
Higher-order mode (HOM) based intra-cavity beam diagnostics has been proved effectively and conveniently in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) accelerators. Our recent research shows that the beam harmonics in the bunch train excited HOM spectrum, which have much higher signal-to-noise ratio than the intrinsic HOM peaks, may also be useful for beam diagnostics. In this paper, we will present our study on bunch train excited HOMs, including the theoretic model and recent experiments carried out based on the DC-SRF photoinjector and SRF linac at Peking University.
Plasma etching has a potential to be an alternative processing technology for superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. An apparatus and a method are developed for plasma etching of the inner surfaces of SRF cavities. To test the effect of the plasma etching on the cavity rf performance, a 1497 MHz single cell SRF cavity is used. The single cell cavity is mechanically polished, buffer chemically etched afterwards and rf tested at cryogenic temperatures for a baseline test. This cavity is then plasma processed. The processing was accomplished by moving axially the inner electrode and the …
A low level radio frequency (LLRF) control system is designed and constructed at Peking University, which is for the DC-SRF photo injector operating at 2K. Besides with continuous wave (CW), the system is also reliable with pulsed RF and pulsed beam, the stability of amplitude and phase can achieve 0.13% and 0.1°respectively. It is worth noting that the system works perfectly when the cavity is driven at both generator driven resonator (GDR) and self-excited loop (SEL), the latter is useful in measuring the performance of the cavity.
We present the design of a high repetition rate MeV energy ultrafast electron diffraction instrument based on a DC photoelectron gun and an SRF linac with multiple independently controlled accelerating and bunching cavities. The design is based on the existing Cornell photoinjector, which can readily be applied to the presented findings. Using particle tracking simulations in conjunction with multiobjective genetic algorithm optimization, we explore the smallest bunch lengths, emittance, and probe spot sizes achievable. We present results for both stroboscopic conditions (with single electrons…
The PIP-II linac will include thirty-six beta=0.61 and twenty-four beta=0.92 650 MHz 5 cell elliptical SRF cavities. Each cavity will be equipped with a tuning system consisting of a double lever slow tuner for coarse frequency tuning and a piezoelectric actuator for fine frequency tuning. The same tuner will be used for both the beta=0.61 and beta=0.92 cavities. Results of testing the cavity-tuner system for the beta=0.61 will be presented for the first time.
SRF cavities for particle acceleration are conventionally operated immersed in a bath of liquid helium at 4.2 K and below. Although this cooling configuration is practically and economically viable for large scientific accelerator installations, it may not be so for smaller accelerators intended for industrial applications such as the treatment of wastewater, sludge, flue gases, etc. In this paper, we describe a procedure to operate SRF cavities without liquid helium that can be used to construct electron-beam sources for industrial applications of electron irradiation (1-10 MeV electron energ…
A simplified numerical model has been developed to simulate non-linear superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) losses on Nb surfaces. This study focuses exclusively on excessive surface resistance (Rs) losses due to the microscopic topographical magnetic field enhancements. When the enhanced local surface magnetic field exceeds the superconducting critical transition magnetic field Hc, small volumes of surface material may become normal conducting and increase the effective surface resistance without inducing a quench. Using topographic data from typical Buffered Chemical Polish (BCP) and Electro…
We demonstrate practical accelerating gradients on a superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) accelerator cavity with cryocooler conduction cooling, a cooling technique that does not involve the complexities of the conventional liquid helium bath. A design is first presented that enables conduction cooling an elliptical-cell SRF cavity. Implementing this design, a single cell 650 MHz Nb3Sn cavity coupled using high purity aluminum thermal links to a 4 K pulse tube cryocooler generated accelerating gradients up to 6.6 MV/m at 100% duty cycle. The experiments were carried out with the cavity-cryocoo…
Most of the current research in superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities is focused on ways to reduce the construction and operating cost of SRF based accelerators as well as on the development of new or improved cavity processing techniques. The increase in quality factors is the result of the reduction of the surface resistance of the materials. A recent test on a 1.5 GHz single cell cavity made from ingot niobium of medium purity and heat treated at 1400 C in a ultra-high vacuum induction furnace resulted in a residual resistance of about 1nanoohm and a quality factor at 2.0 K increas…
Q-slope issue, which is caused by the field dependent surface resistance, puzzled people for a long time in SRF fields. In this paper, we related the Q-slope with surface treatments; and proposed a surface-impurity model to explain the field-dependent of surface resistance of SRF cavities. Eighteen cavity-test results have been analyzed to examine the model. These cavities were treated by different recipes: Nitrogen-doping; BCP and HF-rinsing; EP with 120°C baking; and EP without 120°C baking. The performance of these cavities, which is normally represented by cavity quality factor versus acce…
We conduct the first ``light-shining-through-wall" (LSW) search for dark photons using two state-of-the-art high quality-factor superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities and report the results of its pathfinder run. Our new experimental setup enables improvements in sensitivity over previous searches and covers new dark photon parameter space. We design delicate calibration and measurement protocols to utilize the high-$Q$ setup at Dark SRF. Using cavities operating at $1.3 \ \text{GHz}$, we establish a new exclusion limit for kinetic mixing as small as {$ε= 1.6\times 10^{-9}$} and provid…
Trapped magnetic flux is known to be a significant contribution to the residual resistance of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. The additional losses depend strongly if the vortices are depinned by the RF. The depinning is affected by the purity of the material, and the size of the pinning centers, as well as the cavity operation frequency. One may define a depinning frequency, above which significant depinning occurs. This publication presents a derivation of the depinning frequency from experimental data. We find a depinning frequency of 673 MHz for RRR 110 niobium. On this bas…
For many new accelerator applications, superconducting radio frequency (SRF) systems are the enabling technology. In particular for CW applications, much effort is being expended to minimize the power dissipation (surface resistance) of niobium cavities. Starting in 2009, we suggested a means of reducing the residual resistance by performing a thermal cycle [1], a procedure of warming up a cavity after initial cooldown to about 20K and cooling it down again. In subsequent studies [2], this technique was used to manipulate the residual resistance by more than a factor of 2. It was postulated th…
We investigate the effect of high temperature treatments followed by only high-pressure water rinse (HPR) of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) niobium cavities. The objective is to provide a cost effective alternative to the typical cavity processing sequence, by eliminating the material removal step post furnace treatment while preserving or improving the RF performance. The studies have been conducted in the temperature range 800-1000C for different conditions of the starting substrate: large grain and fine grain, electro-polished (EP) and centrifugal barrel polished (CBP) to mirror fini…
The SNS SRF system is operated with a pulsed beam. For the SRF system to track the repetitive reference trajectory, a feedback and a feedforward controllers has been proposed. The feedback controller is to guarantee the closed loop system stability and the feedforward controller is to improve the tracking performance for the repetitive reference trajectory and to suppress the repetitive disturbance. As the iteration number increases, the error decreases.
Plasma based surface modification of niobium is a promising alternative to wet etching of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. The development of the technology based on Cl2/Ar plasma etching has to address several crucial parameters which influence the etching rate and surface roughness, and eventually, determine cavity performance. This includes dependence of the process on the frequency of the RF generator, gas pressure, power level, the driven (inner) electrode configuration, and the chlorine concentration in the gas mixture during plasma processing. To demonstrate surface layer…
The surface resistance of an RF superconductor depends on the surface temperature, the residual resistance and various superconductor parameters, e.g. the energy gap, and the electron mean free path. These parameters can be determined by measuring the quality factor Q0 of a SRF cavity in helium-baths of different temperatures. The surface resistance can be computed from Q0 for any cavity geometry, but it is not trivial to determine the temperature of the surface when only the temperature of the helium bath is known. Traditionally, it was approximated that the surface temperature on the inner s…
Buffered Chemical Polishing (BCP) was the most conventional polishing method for superconducting radio frequency (SRF) Niobium (Nb) cavity surface preparation before the discovery of Electropolishing (EP), which is superior to BCP in high gradient performance. The High Field Q-slope (HFQS) is perfectly eliminated by taking the low temperature bake (LTB) post EP, which guarantees high gradient performance in EP'ed cavities. The mechanism of the HFQS is well understood for EP'ed cavities. On the other hand, there is no common consensus on the HFQS with BCP, since even BCP with LTB does not alway…
The technological and metallurgical requirements of material for highgradient superconducting cavities are described. High-purity niobium, as the preferred metal for the fabrication of superconducting accelerating cavities, should meet exact specifications. The content of interstitial impurities such as oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon must be below 10μg/g. The hydrogen content should be kept below 2μg/g to prevent degradation of the Q-value under certain cool-down conditions. The material should be free of flaws (foreign material inclusions or cracks and laminations) that can initiate a thermal b…
