Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Development And Characterization Of Nb₃N/Al₂0₃ Superconducting Multilayers For Particle Accelerators, Chris Sundahl, Junki Makita, Paul B. Welander, Yi-Feng Su, Fumitake Kametani, Lin Xie, Huimin Zhang, Lian Li, Alex Gurevich, Chang-Beom Eom

Physics Faculty Publications

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) resonator cavities provide extremely high quality factors > 10¹⁰ at 1-2 GHz and 2 K in large linear accelerators of high-energy particles. The maximum accelerating field of SRF cavities is limited by penetration of vortices into the superconductor. Present state-of-the-art Nb cavities can withstand up to 50 MV/m accelerating gradients and magnetic fields of 200-240 mT which destroy the low-dissipative Meissner state. Achieving higher accelerating gradients requires superconductors with higher thermodynamic critical fields, of which Nb₃Sn has emerged as a leading material for the next generation accelerators. To overcome the problem of low vortex penetration …