arXiv subjects

M. Checchin

Publications and source records attributed to M. Checchin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Multipacting Processing in Cryomodules For LCLS-II And LCLS-II-HE

Multipacting (MP) is a phenomenon which can affect stability in particle accelerators and limit performance in superconducting radio frequency cavities. In the TESLA shaped, 1.3 GHz, 9-cell cavities used in the LCLS-II (L2) and LCLS-II-HE (HE) projects, the MP-band (~17-24 MV/m) lies within the required accelerating gradients. For HE, the operating gradient of 20.8 MV/m lies well within the MP-band and cryomodule testing has confirmed that this is an issue. As such, MP processing for the HE cryomodule test program will be discussed. Early results on MP processing in cryomodules installed in the L2 linac will also be presented, demonstrating that the methods used in cryomodule acceptance testing are also successful at conditioning MP in the accelerator and that this processing is preserved in the mid-term.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2023

An 8 GeV Linac as the Booster Replacement in the Fermilab Power Upgrade: a Snowmass 2021 White Paper

Following the PIP-II 800 MeV Linac, Fermilab will need an accelerator that extends from that linac to the MI injection energy of ~8 GeV, completing the modernization of the Fermilab high-intensity accelerator complex. This will maximize the beam available for neutrino production for the long baseline DUNE experiment to greater than 2.5 MW and enable a next generation of intensity frontier experiments. In this white paper, we propose an 8 GeV Linac for that purpose. The Linac consists of an extension of the PIP-II Linac to ~2 GeV using PIP-II 650 MHz SRF cryomodules, followed by a 2 -->8.0 GeV Linac composed of 1300 MHz SRF cryomodules, based upon the LCLS-II cryomodules developed at Fermilab. The 8 GeV Linac will incorporate recent improvements in SRF technology. The research needed to implement this Linac is described.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Measurement of high quality factor superconducting cavities in tesla-scale magnetic fields for dark matter searches

In dark matter searches using axion haloscopes, the search sensitivity depends on the quality factors ($Q_0$) of radiofrequency cavities immersed in multi-tesla magnetic fields. Increasing $Q_0$ would increase the scan rate through the parameter space of interest. Researchers developing superconducting radiofrequency cavities for particle accelerators have developed methods for obtaining extremely high $Q_0\sim10^{11}$ in $μ$T-scale magnetic fields. In this paper, we describe efforts to develop high Q cavities made from Nb$_3$Sn films using a technique developed for particle accelerator cavities. Geometry optimization for this application is explored, and two cavities are tested: an existing particle accelerator-style cavity and a geometry developed and fabricated for use in high fields. A quality factor of ($5.3\pm0.3$)$\times 10^5$ is obtained at 3.9~GHz and 6~T at 4.2~K.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

HELEN: A Linear Collider Based On Advanced SRF Technology

This paper discusses recently proposed Higgs Energy LEptoN (HELEN) $e+e-$ linear collider based on advances in superconducting radio frequency technology. The collider offers cost and AC power savings, smaller footprint (relative to the ILC), and could be built at Fermilab with an interaction region within the site boundaries. After the initial physics run at 250 GeV, the collider could be upgraded either to higher luminosity or to higher (up to 500 GeV) energies.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

200 MV Record Voltage Of vCM And LCLS-II-HE Cryomodules Production Start At Fermilab

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is an X-ray science facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The LCLS-II project (an upgrade to LCLS) is in the commissioning phase; the LCLS-II-HE (High Energy) project is another upgrade to the facility, enabling higher energy operation. An electron beam is accelerated using superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities built into cryomodules. It is planned to build 24 1.3 GHz standard cryomodules and one 1.3 GHz single-cavity Buncher Capture Cavity (BCC) cryomodule for the LCLS-II-HE project. Fourteen of these standard cryomodules and the BCC are planned to be assembled and tested at Fermilab. Procurements for standard cryomodule components are nearing completion. The first LCLS-II-HE cryomodule, referred to as the verification cryomodule (vCM) was assembled and tested at Fermilab. Fermilab has completed the assembly of the second cryomodule. This paper presents LCLS-II-HE cryomodule production status at Fermilab, emphasizing the changes done based on the successes, challenges, mitigations, and lessons learned from LCLS-II; validation of the changes with the excellent vCM results.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

An 8 GEV Linac As The Booster Replacement In The Fermilab Power Upgrade

Increasing the Fermilab Main Injector (MI) beam power above ~1.2 MW requires replacement of the 8 GeV Booster by a higher intensity alternative. Earlier, rapid-cycling synchrotron and linac solutions were considered for this purpose. In this paper, we consider the linac version that produces 8 GeV H- beam for injection into the Recycler Ring (RR) or MI The new linac takes ~1 GeV beam from the PIP-II linac and accelerates it to ~ 2 GeV in a 650 MHz SRF linac, and then accelerates to ~8 GeV in an SRF pulsed linac using 1300 MHz cryomodules. The linac components incorporate recent improvements in SRF technology. This Booster Replacement linac (BRL) will increase MI beam power to DUNE to more than 2.5 MW and enable next-generation intensity frontier experiments.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Key directions for research and development of superconducting radio frequency cavities

Radio frequency superconductivity is a cornerstone technology for many future HEP particle accelerators and experiments from colliders to proton drivers for neutrino facilities to searches for dark matter. While the performance of superconducting RF (SRF) cavities has improved significantly over the last decades, and the SRF technology has enabled new applications, the proposed HEP facilities and experiments pose new challenges. To address these challenges, the field continues to generate new ideas and there seems to be a vast room for improvements. In this paper we discuss the key research directions that are aligned with and address the future HEP needs.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Plasma Processing for In-Situ Field Emission Mitigation of Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) Cryomodules

Field emission (FE) is one of the main limiting factors of superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities operating in accelerators and it occurs whenever contaminants, like dust, metal flakes or even absorbates, are present on the surface of the cavity high electric field region. Field emission reduces the maximum achievable accelerating field and generates free electrons that may interact with the beam, damage or activate the beamline. One practical method that can be used to mitigate this problem is in-situ plasma cleaning, or plasma processing. The development of a processing that can be applied in-situ is extremely advantageous, since it enables the recovery of the cryomodule performance without the need of disassembling the whole cryomodule, which is an extremely expensive and time-consuming process. On the other hand, plasma processing only requires the cryomodule warm-up to room-temperature and the subsequent processing of the contaminated cavities. The entire process is reasonably quick and involves a limited number of personnel. For these reasons we would like to advocate for continuing to invest in the R\&D of plasma processing to optimize its applicability in cryomodules and for extending the technique to other frequency ranges and cavities geometries.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Higgs-Energy LEptoN (HELEN) Collider based on advanced superconducting radio frequency technology

This Snowmass 2021 contributed paper discusses a Higgs-Energy LEptoN (HELEN) $e^+e^-$ linear collider based on advances superconducting radio frequency technology. The proposed collider offers cost and AC power savings, smaller footprint (relative to the ILC), and could be built at Fermilab with an Interaction Region within the site boundaries. After the initial physics run at 250 GeV, the collider could be upgraded either to higher luminosity or to higher (up to 500 GeV) energies. If the ILC could not be realized in Japan in a timely fashion, the HELEN collider would be a viable option to build a Higgs factory in the U.S.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2021

LCLS-II-HE verification cryomodule high gradient performance and quench behavior

An 8-cavity, 1.3 GHz, LCLS-II-HE cryomodule was assembled and tested at Fermilab to verify performance before the start of production. Its cavities were processed with a novel nitrogen doping treatment to improve gradient performance. The cryomodule was tested with a modified protocol to process sporadic quenches, which were observed in LCLS-II production cryomodules and are attributed to multipacting. Dedicated vertical test experiments support the attribution to multipacting. The verification cryomodule achieved an acceleration voltage of 200 MV in continuous wave mode, corresponding to an average accelerating gradient of 24.1 MV/m, significantly exceeding the specification of 173 MV. The average Q0 (3.0x10^10) also exceeded its specification (2.7x10^10). After processing, no field emission was observed up to the maximum gradient of each cavity. This paper reviews the cryomodule performance and discusses operational issues and mitigations implemented during the several month program.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2021

Signatures of Enhanced Superconducting Properties in Niobium Cavities

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) niobium cavities are critical for modern particle accelerators, as well as for advancing superconducting quantum systems and enabling ultra-sensitive searches for new physics. In this work, we report a systematic observation of an anomalous frequency dip in Nb cavities, which occurs at temperatures just below the critical temperature ($T_\mathrm{c}$), indicative of enhanced superconducting properties at $T \ll T_c$. The magnitude of this dip is strongly correlated with the RF surface resistance, impurity distribution near the surface, and $T_\mathrm{c}$. Additionally, we report measurements of the coherence peak in the AC conductivity of two Nb SRF cavities processed using distinct methods. By comparing recent theories developed to model this experimental data, we show that the frequency dip feature, larger coherence peak height, and reduction in the temperature-dependent surface resistance with RF current occur at minimal but finite levels of disorder.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Accelerating fields up to 49 MV/m in TESLA-shape superconducting RF niobium cavities via 75C vacuum bake

In this paper we present the discovery of a new surface treatment applied to superconducting radio frequency (SRF) niobium cavities, leading to unprecedented accelerating fields of 49 MV/m in TESLA-shaped cavities, in continuous wave (CW); the corresponding peak magnetic fields are the highest ever measured in CW, about 210 mT. For TESLA-shape cavities the maximum quench field ever achieved was ~45 MV/m - reached very rarely- with most typical values being below 40 MV/m. These values are reached for niobium surfaces treated with electropolishing followed by the so called mild bake, a 120C vacuum bake (for 48 hours for fine grain and 24 hours for large grain surfaces). We discover that the addition during the mild bake of a step at 75C for few hours, before the 120C, increases systematically the quench fields up to unprecedented values of 49 MV/m. The significance of the result lays not only in the relative improvement, but in the proof that niobium surfaces can sustain and exceed CW radio frequency magnetic fields much larger than Hc1, pointing to an extrinsic nature of the current field limitations, and therefore to the potential to reach accelerating fields well beyond the current state of the art.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2017

Advancement in the understanding of the field and frequency dependent microwave surface resistance of niobium

The radio-frequency surface resistance of niobium resonators is incredibly reduced when nitrogen impurities are dissolved as interstitial in the material, conferring ultra-high Q-factors at medium values of accelerating field. This effect has been observed in both high and low temperature nitrogen treatments. As a matter of fact, the peculiar anti Q-slope observed in nitrogen doped cavities, i.e. the decreasing of the Q-factor with the increasing of the radio-frequency field, come from the decreasing of the BCS surface resistance component as a function of the field. Such peculiar behavior has been considered consequence of the interstitial nitrogen present in the niobium lattice after the doping treatment. The study here presented show the field dependence of the BCS surface resistance of cavities with different resonant frequencies, such as: 650 MHz, 1.3 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.9 GHz, and processed with different state-of-the-art surface treatments. These findings show for the first time that the anti Q-slope might be seen at high frequency even for clean Niobium cavities, revealing useful suggestion on the physics underneath the anti Q-slope effect.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2017

Unprecedented Quality Factors at Accelerating Gradients up to 45 MV/m in Niobium Superconducting Resonators via Low Temperature Nitrogen Infusion

We report the finding of new surface treatments that permit to manipulate the niobium resonator nitrogen content in the first few nanometers in a controlled way, and the resonator fundamental Mattis-Bardeen surface resistance and residual resistance accordingly. In particular, we find surface infusion conditions that systematically a) increase the quality factor of these 1.3 GHz superconducting radio frequency (SRF) bulk niobium resonators, up to very high gradients; b) increase the achievable accelerating gradient of the cavity compared to its own baseline with state-of-the-art surface processing. Cavities subject to the new surface process have larger than two times the state of the art Q at 2K for accelerating fields > 35 MV/m. Moreover, very high accelerating gradients ~ 45 MV/m are repeatedly reached, which correspond to peak magnetic surface fields of 190 mT, among the highest measured for bulk niobium cavities. These findings open the opportunity to tailor the surface impurity content distribution to maximize performance in Q and gradients, and have therefore very important implications on future performance and cost of SRF based accelerators. They also help deepen the understanding of the physics of the RF niobium cavity surface.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2016

Effect of interstitial impurities on the field dependent microwave surface resistance of niobium

Previous work has demonstrated that the radio frequency surface resistance of niobium resonators is dramatically reduced when nitrogen impurities are dissolved as interstitial in the material. The origin of this effect is attributed to the lowering of the Mattis and Bardeen surface resistance contribution with increasing accelerating field. Meanwhile, an enhancement of the sensitivity to trapped magnetic field is typically observed for such cavities. In this paper we conduct the first systematic study on these different components contributing to the total surface resistance as a function of different levels of dissolved nitrogen, in comparison with standard surface treatments for niobium resonators. Adding these results together we are able to show for the first time which is the optimum surface treatment that maximizes the Q-factor of superconducting niobium resonators as a function of expected trapped magnetic field in the cavity walls. These results also provide new insights on the physics behind the change in the field dependence of the Mattis and Bardeen surface resistance, and of the trapped magnetic vortex induced losses in superconducting niobium resonators.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quench-Induced Degradation of the Quality Factor in Superconducting Resonators

Quench of superconducting radio-frequency cavities frequently leads to the lowered quality factor Q0, which had been attributed to the additional trapped magnetic flux. Here we demonstrate that the origin of this magnetic flux is purely extrinsic to the cavity by showing no extra dissipation (unchanged Q0) after quenching in zero magnetic field, which allows us to rule out intrinsic mechanisms of flux trapping such as generation of thermal currents or trapping of the rf field. We also show the clear relation of dissipation introduced by quenching to the orientation of the applied magnetic field and the possibility to fully recover the quality factor by requenching in the compensated field. We discover that for larger values of the ambient field, the Q-factor degradation may become irreversible by this technique, likely due to the outward flux migration beyond the normal zone opening during quench. Our findings are of special practical importance for accelerators based on low- and medium-beta accelerating structures residing close to focusing magnets, as well as for all high-Q cavity-based accelerators.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2016

Efficient expulsion of magnetic flux in superconducting RF cavities for high $Q_0$ applications

Even when cooled through its transition temperature in the presence of an external magnetic field, a superconductor can expel nearly all external magnetic flux. This Letter presents an experimental study to identify the parameters that most strongly influence flux trapping in high purity niobium during cooldown. This is critical to the operation of superconducting radiofrequency cavities, in which trapped flux degrades the quality factor and therefore cryogenic efficiency. Flux expulsion was measured on a large survey of 1.3 GHz cavities prepared in various ways. It is shown that both spatial thermal gradient and high temperature treatment are critical to expelling external magnetic fields, while surface treatment has minimal effect. For the first time, it is shown that a cavity can be converted from poor expulsion behavior to strong expulsion behavior after furnace treatment, resulting in a substantial improvement in quality factor. Future plans are described to build on this result in order to optimize treatment for future cavities.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cooling Dynamics Through Transition Temperature of Niobium SRF Cavities Captured by Temperature Mapping

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 of two different transition dynamics: a sharp superconducting-normal conducting transition during fast cool-down which favors flux expulsion and nucleation phase transition during slow cool-down, which leads to full flux trapping.

physics.acc-ph↗