arXiv subjects

P. Kolb

Publications and source records attributed to P. Kolb.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Study of Nb Surface Under Ultra High Vacuum After Heat Treatments For SRF Cavities

Specific heat treatments applied to superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities, such as nitrogen infusion or Mid T baking, aim to improve the quality factor (Q0) at medium accelerating fields (10 to 20 MV/m). These treatments reduce the BCS surface resistance by tuning the mean free path of niobium over a few hundred nanometers, either by diffusing oxygen from the native oxide layer or by diffusing nitrogen after the dissolution of the oxide layer. However, these treatments preclude the usual chemical polishing, as it would reverse the beneficial effects of the heat treatments, making the cavities highly sensitive to surface contamination. In particular, the formation of niobium carbides, which can mask the expected benefits, strongly depends on the annealing conditions, surface preparation, and the materials history. Several hypotheses are considered regard-ing the origin of carbon: vacuum contamination, surface pollution, or internal migration from the niobium itself, potentially enriched with carbon during previous chemi-cal treatments (BCP, EP). This work aims to identify the primary source of carbon responsible for niobium carbide growth, using techniques such as X Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The study will also help pinpoint the key influencing parameters, thereby contributing to a better understanding of and potential mitigation strategies for their impact on SRF cavity performance.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2026

Insitu X Ray Photoemission Study of Nb Surface Under Plasma Cleaning During MID T BAKING For SRF Cavities

Specific heat treatments applied to superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities, such as nitrogen infusion or Mid T baking, aim to improve the quality factor (Qo) at medium accelerating fields (10 to 20 MV/m). These treatments reduce the BCS surface resistance by tuning the mean free path of niobium over a few hundred na-nometers, either by diffusing oxygen from the native oxide layer or by diffusing nitrogen after the dissolution of the oxide layer. However, these treatments preclude the usual chemical polishing, as it would reverse the beneficial effects of the heat treatments, making the cavities highly sensitive to surface contamination. In particular, the formation of niobium carbides, which can mask the expected benefits, strongly depends on the annealing conditions, surface preparation, and the materials history. To better understand these phenomena, niobium samples was annealed under ultrahigh vacuum (Mid T baking) with Ar/O2 plasma treatment to investi-gate surface contamination with insitu heat treatment at 500 C and XPS analysis.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2026

Improvement of Heat-Treated Niobium Surface by In-situ Plasma Treatment Applied to Superconducting RF Resonator

A specific heat treatment at 300 C, named medium-temperature baking (Mid-T baking) is applied to superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) accelerating cavities to improve the quality factor (Qo) at medium accelerating fields (10 to 20 MV/m). This treatment is very successful when done properly as it can reduce by almost a factor of two the power dissipations in this field range. However, surface contamination can lead to the degradation of Qo instead. Plasma-based surface treatment provides an effective approach to eliminate contaminants from the Niobium surface. In this study an insitu plasma cleaning process with argon containing 10 % O2 was performed to remove hydrocarbons from Niobium surface. The treatment was applied before and after a heat treatment at 500 C under ultra-high vacuum conditions (Mid-T baking). Changes in chemical speciation and oxide layer alteration induced by plasma processing were analyzed using insitu X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and exsitu scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that plasma treatment modifies the composition of Niobium oxides, converting a Nb2O5 layer into NbO2. Furthermore, a plasma treatment before Mid-T baking helps reduce unstable oxides such as NbxO and significantly increases the proportion of metallic Niobium at the surface. The Niobium sample treated by plasma prior to Mid-T baking showed a 53 % reduction in carbide formation. Moreover, the C1s component attributed to NbC bonds shifts toward lower binding energy, indicating the formation of a more metallic NbC phase. Whereas without plasma treatment, the higher binding energy component observed after Mid T baking is consistent with Nb2C.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Coaxial multi-mode cavities for fundamental SRF research in an unprecedented parameter space

Recent developments in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) research have focused primarily on high frequency elliptical cavities for electron accelerators. Advances have been made in both reducing RF surface resistance and pushing the readily achievable accelerating gradient by using novel SRF cavity treatments including surface processing, custom heat treatments, and flux expulsion. Despite the global demand for SRF based hadron accelerators, the advancement of TEM mode cavities has lagged behind. To address this, two purpose-built research cavities, one quarter-wave and one half-wave resonator, have been designed and built to allow characterization of TEM-mode cavities with standard and novel surface treatments. The cavities are intended as the TEM mode equivalent to the 1.3GHz single cell cavity, which is the essential tool for high frequency cavity research. Given their coaxial structure, the cavities allow testing at the fundamental mode and higher harmonics, giving unique insight into the role of RF frequency on fundamental loss mechanisms from intrinsic and extrinsic sources. In this paper, the cavities and testing infrastructure are described and the first performance measurements of both cavities are presented.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Critical Fields of Nb$_3$Sn Prepared for Superconducting Cavities

Nb$_3$Sn is currently the most promising material other than niobium for future superconducting radiofrequency cavities. Critical fields above 120 mT in pulsed operation and about 80 mT in CW have been achieved in cavity tests. This is large compared to the lower critical field as derived from the London penetration depth, extracted from low field surface impedance measurements. In this paper direct measurements of the London penetration depth from which the lower critical field and the superheating field are derived are presented. The field of first vortex penetration is measured under DC and RF fields. The combined results confirm that Nb$_3$Sn cavities are indeed operated in a metastable state above the lower critical field but are currently limited to a critical field well below the superheating field.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2017

Field of first flux entry and pinning strength of superconductors for RF application measured with muon spin rotation

The performance of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities used for particle accelerators depends on two characteristic material parameters: field of first flux entry $H_{entry}$ and pinning strength. The former sets the limit for the maximum achievable accelerating gradient, while the latter determines how efficiently flux can be expelled related to the maximum achievable quality factor. In this paper, a method based on muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) is developed to probe these parameters on samples. It combines measurements from two different spectrometers, one being specifically built for these studies and samples of different geometries. It is found that annealing at 1400{\deg}C virtually eliminates all pinning. Such an annealed substrate is ideally suited to measure $H_{entry}$ of layered superconductors, which might enable accelerating gradients beyond bulk niobium technology.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Muon spin rotation studies of niobium for superconducting RF applications

In this work we investigate superconducting properties of niobium samples via application of the muon spin rotation/relaxation (muSR) technique. We employ for the first time the muSR technique to study samples that are cutout from large and small grain 1.5 GHz radio frequency (RF) single cell niobium cavities. The RF test of these cavities was accompanied by full temperature mapping to characterize the RF losses in each of the samples. Results of the muSR measurements show that standard cavity surface treatments like mild baking and buffered chemical polishing (BCP) performed on the studied samples affect their surface pinning strength. We find an interesting correlation between high field RF losses and field dependence of the sample magnetic volume fraction measured via muSR. The muSR line width observed in ZF-muSR measurements matches the behavior of Nb samples doped with minute amounts of Ta or N impurities. An upper bound for the upper critical field Hc2 of these cutouts is found.

cond-mat.supr-con↗