Role of Thermal Resistance on the Performance of Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavities

TL;DR

This study investigates how thermal resistance affects the performance of superconducting RF cavities, finding that surface treatments do not significantly impact performance and that non-linear surface resistance effects dominate at medium fields.

Contribution

It provides direct measurements of thermal resistance in 1.3 GHz SRF cavities and analyzes its influence on cavity performance, highlighting the dominance of intrinsic non-linearities over thermal effects.

Findings

Thermal resistance has minimal impact after surface treatments.

Non-uniform heating observed at medium rf fields.

Non-linear surface resistance effects are primary cause of field dependence.

Abstract

Thermal stability is an important parameter for the operation of the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities used in particle accelerators. The rf power dissipated on the inner surface of the cavities is conducted to the helium bath cooling the outer cavity surface and the equilibrium temperature of the inner surface depends on the thermal resistance. In this manuscript, we present the results of direct measurements of thermal resistance on 1.3 GHz single cell SRF cavities made from high purity large grain and fine grain niobium as well as their rf performance for different treatments applied to outer cavity surface in order to investigate the role of the Kapitza resistance to the overall thermal resistance and to the SRF cavity performance. The results show no significant impact of the thermal resistance to the SRF cavity performance after chemical polishing, mechanical polishing or anodization of the outer cavity surface. Temperature maps taken during the rf test show non-uniform heating of the surface at medium rf fields. Calculations of Q0(Bp) curves using the thermal feedback model show good agreement with experimental data at 2 K and 1.8 K when a pair-braking term is included in the calculation of the BCS surface resistance. These results indicate local intrinsic non-linearities of the surface resistance, rather than purely thermal effects, to be the main cause for the observed field dependence of Q0(Bp).