H. Phillips

High Thermal Conductivity Cryogenic RF Feedthroughs for Higher Order Mode Couplers

The use of higher-order-mode (HOM) pickup probes in the presence of significant fundamental RF fields can present a thermal challenge for CW or high average power SRF cavity applications. The electric field probes on the HOM-damping couplers on the JLab “High Gradient” (HG) and “Low Loss” (LL) seven-cell cavities for the CEBAF upgrade are exposed to approximately 10% of the peak magnetic field in the cavity. To avoid significant dissipative losses, these probes must remain superconducting during operation. Typical cryogenic rf feedthroughs provide a poor thermal conduction path for the probes and provide inadequate stabilization. We have developed solutions that meet the requirements, providing a direct thermal path from the niobium probe, thorough single-crystal sapphire, to bulk copper which can be thermally anchored. Designs, electromagnetic and thermal analyses, and performance data will be presented.

Energetic deposition of niobium thin film by ecr-plasma

An electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)-plasma reactor has been built to do energetic ion deposition of refractory metals in vacuum. The system uses an E-beam gun to create refractory metal flux. The neutral metal flux feeds into a microwave resonator and forms pure metal plasma created by electron cyclotron resonance. The metal ions are extracted to a biased substrate for direct deposition. A retarding field energy analyzer is developed and used to measure the kinetic energy of metal ions at the substrate location. A high-quality niobium thin film is obtained through this deposition system. The niobium film exhibits an excellent superconducting transition. The niobium ion energy distribution has been measured. The niobium ion at the substrate location has a median kinetic energy of 64 eV with an energy spread of 20 eV under certain plasma conditions.

Niobium Thin Film Coating on A 500-MHz Copper Cavity by Plasma Deposition

A system using an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma source for the deposition of a thin niobium film inside a copper cavity for superconducting accelerator applications has been designed and is being constructed. The system uses a 500-MHz copper cavity as both substrate and vacuum chamber. The ECR plasma will be created to produce direct niobium ion deposition. The central cylindrical grid is DC biased to control the deposition energy. This paper describes the design of several subcomponents including the vacuum chamber, RF supply, biasing grid and magnet coils. Operational parameters are compared between an operating sample deposition system and this system. Engineering progress toward the first plasma creation will be reported here.