ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
ORNL RAD, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
The Spallation Neutron Source routinely operates with a proton beam power of 1 MW on its production target. A plan to reach the design 1.4 MW within a few years is in place* and relies on increasing the ion beam current, pulse length and beam energy in the linac. The increase in beam energy from the present 930 MeV to 1 GeV will require an increase of approximately 15% in the accelerating gradient of the superconducting linac high-beta cryomodules. In-situ plasma processing was identified as a promising technique** to reduce electron activity in the SNS superconducting cavities and increase their accelerating gradient. R&D on plasma processing aims at deploying the new in-situ technique in the linac tunnel by 2016. Overall plan and current status of the plasma processing R&D will be presented.
* NScD Five year plan 2012-2016, SNS-NSCD-EXE-PN-0001, R00, ORNL
** S-H Kim et al., “R&D Status for In-Situ Plasma Surface Cleaning of SRF Cavities at Spallation Neutron Source”, PAC 2011 Proceedings
ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Plasma based surface modifications of SRF cavities present promising alternatives to the wet etching technology currently applied. To understand and characterize the plasma properties and chemical kinetics of plasma etching processes inside a single cell cavity, we have built a specially-designed cylindrical cavity with 8 observation ports. These ports can be used for holding niobium samples and diagnostic purposes simultaneously. Two frequencies (13.56 MHz and 2.45 GHz) of power source are used for different pressure, power and gas compositions. The plasma parameters were evaluated by a Langmuir probe and by an optical emission spectroscopy technique based on the relative intensity of two Ar 5p-4s lines at 419.8 and 420.07 nm. Argon 5p-4s transition is chosen to determine electron temperature in order to optimize parameters for plasma processing. Chemical kinetics of the process was observed using real-time mass spectroscopy. The effect of these parameters on niobium surface would be measured, presented at this conference, and used as guidelines for optimal design of SRF etching process.
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
In the context of the HIE-ISOLDE upgrade at CERN, several new facilities for the niobium sputter coating of QWR-type superconducting RF accelerating cavities have been developed, built, and successfully operated. In order to further optimize the production process of these cavities the magnetron sputtering technique has been further investigated and continued as an alternative to the already successfully operational DC bias diode sputtering method. The purpose of this poster is to present the results obtained with this technique. The Nb thickness profile along the cavity and its correlation with the electro-magnetic field distribution inside the cavity are discussed. Film structure, morphology and Residual Resistivity Ratio (RRR) will be considered as well and compared with films obtained by DC bias diode sputtering. Finally these results will be compared with RF characterization and measurement of a production-like magnetron-coated cavity.
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
SHU, Sheffield, United Kingdom
JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
PKU, Beijing, People's Republic of China
In this study, we present preliminary results on using a cathodic-arc-discharge Nb plasma ion source to establish a Nb film-coated single-cell Cu cavity for SRF research. The polycrystalline Cu cavity was fabricated and mirror-surface-finished by a centrifugal barrel polishing (CBP) process at Jefferson Lab. Special pre-coating processes were conducted, in order to create a template-layer for follow-on Nb grain thickening. A sequence of cryogenic RF testing demonstrated that the Nb film does show superconductivity. But the quality factor of this Nb/Cu cavity is low as a result of high residual surface resistance. We are conducting a thorough materials characterization to explore if some microstructural defects or hydrogen impurities, led to such a low quality factor.
CEA/DSM/IRFU, France
IPN, Orsay, France
CSNSM, ORSAY CAMPUS, France
Commisariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA/DEN/DPC), Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
JLAB, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Over the years, Nb/Cu technology, despite its shortcomings due to the commonly used magnetron sputtering, has positioned itself as an alternative route for the future of accelerator superconducting structures. Avenues for the production of thin films tailored for Superconducting RF (SRF) applications are showing promise with recent developments in ionized PVD coating techniques, i.e. vacuum deposition techniques using energetic ions. Among these techniques, High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is a promising emerging technique which combines magnetron sputtering with a pulsed power approach. This contribution describes the benefits of energetic condensation for SRF films and the characteristics of the HiPIMS technology. It describes the on-going efforts pursued in different institutions to exploit the potential of this technology to produce bulk-like Nb films and go beyond Nb performance with the development of film systems, based on other superconducting materials and multilayer structures.
AASC, San Leandro, California, USA
Energetic Condensation refers to thinfilm growth on a surface using ~100eV ions, versus lower energy deposition using sputtering (~1-10eV with no substrate bias) or still lower energy thermal evaporation. The relatively high incident energy of energetic condensation creates defects and vacancies within the first few atomic layers and enables diffusion to lower free-energy sites in the lattice. Shallow defects migrate to the heated surface and are annihilated, leading to low-defect crystal growth. It has been shown [1] that the purer the film, the closer are its superconducting parameters to those of the bulk metal. Use of cathodic arc plasmas was proposed in 2000 by Langner [TESLA Rep. 2000-15, Ed. D. Proch, DESY 2000], followed by detailed development of the process [2]. AASC picked up from the European Community-Research Infrastructure Activity and has demonstrated very high RRR=541 in Nb films grown on crystal substrates [3]. Ongoing work to coat 1.3GHz copper cavities using cathodic arc plasmas, as well as growth of higher temperature films such as NbTiN, Nb3Sn and MgB2 are described. A related technique for energetic condensation using an ECR plasma source is also described.
1. C. Benvenuti et al, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 9 (1999) 900
2. R. Russo et al, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 18 (2005) L41-L44
3. M. Krishnan et al, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 24, 115002 (2011)