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Recent advances in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) have made them extremely attractive for low-temperature, high-magnetic-field-power applications such as in fusion technology, where the advantages over traditional low-temperature superconductors (LTS) allow for the design of fusion reactors operating in different and more convenient regimes. However, the performance enhancement exhibited by novel conductors poses several challenges for the measurement of their superconducting properties. The high critical currents coupled with the relatively low thermal stability of the conductors and their mechanical fragility render this task a challenge, as the angular anisotropies complicate the experimental setup. In this work, we describe the development of our novel high-current measurement facility, focusing on the solutions introduced regarding critical aspects such as the superconducting leads and the sample holder design. We show how simple but effectively designed solutions can be adopted to combat the complexity of the measurement. The results reported in this work guide the development of a measurement system able to withstand high critical currents (I > 1500 A) at high magnetic fields (µ0H > 12 T) by evaluating the angular response of 4 mm wide short samples (L ~ 7.5 cm) in a robust and reproducible manner.

In this work, a detailed parametric study assessing the impact of low-conductivity coatings on the radio-frequency accelerating cavity quality factor and resonance frequency shift is presented. In particular, this study is aimed at proving the feasibility of molybdenum oxides deposited on copper to reduce the dark current in high-gradient applications due to its intrinsically high work function. In order to compute the effective surface impedance of the resulting layered structure, a transmission line-based approach is adopted. The present analysis demonstrates the potential effectiveness of molybdenum thin-films, which only slightly affects the accelerating cavity quality factor, with very low sensitivity to thickness and resistivity inhomogeneities.

Microwave transducers are widely used for sensing applications in areas such as gas sensing and microfluidics. Inkjet printing technology has been proposed as a promising method for fabricating such devices due to its capability to produce complex patterns and geometries with high precision. In this work, the temperature-dependent electrical properties of an inkjet-printed single-port interdigitated capacitor (IDC) were investigated at cryogenic temperatures down to 20 K. The IDC was designed and fabricated using inkjet printing technology, while its reflection coefficient was measured using a vector network analyzer in a cryogenic measurement setup and then transformed into the corresponding admittance. The resonant frequency and quality factor (Q-factor) of the IDC were extracted as functions of the temperature and their sensitivity was evaluated. The results showed that the resonant frequency shifted to higher frequencies as the temperature was reduced, while the Q-factor increased as the temperature decreased. The trends and observations in the temperature-dependent electrical properties of the IDC are discussed and analyzed in this paper, and are expected to be useful in future advancement of the design and optimization of inkjet-printed microwave transducers for sensing applications and cryogenic electronics.

The spread of additive manufacturing techniques in the prototyping and realization of high-frequency applications renewed the interest in the characterization of the electromagnetic properties of both dielectric and conductive materials, as well as the design of new versatile measurement techniques. In this framework, a new configuration of a dielectric-loaded resonator is presented. Its optimization, realization, and use are presented. A measurement repeatability of about one order of magnitude lower than the commonly found values (10−3 on the Q-factor and 15×10−6 on the resonance frequency, given in terms of the relative standard deviations of repeated measurements) was reached thanks to the design of a closed resonator in which the samples can be loaded without disassembling the whole measurement fixture. The uncertainty levels, the ease of use, and the versatility of the realized system make its use of potential interest in numerous scenarios.

We present numerical and experimental results aimed at reducing the uncertainties in measurements of the quality factor and resonance frequency of microwave resonators. We focus on the optimization of the frequency span and on the role of uncalibrated transmission lines. We find that optimal frequency spans are different for measurements of the quality factor and of the resonance frequency. The uncertainty introduced by uncalibrated lines, unavoidable in particular kinds of measurements, is experimentally determined. We give practical indications on best compromises for a wide range of quality factors.

The root mean square surface roughness Rq of metals is detrimental in several microwave applications. Rq characterization methods are thus largely used and of great interest. In this work, a new dielectric loaded resonator (DR) design is proposed to evaluate the surface resistance variations of samples with different Rq. The new design is thought to make the measurement accuracy, usually strongly affected by the measurement repeatability, suitable for this study. We analyze the measurement method’s sensitivity and accuracy in order to assess the possibility of using this new DR design for highly accurate surface resistance measurements sensitive to Rq variations.

Axions, hypothetical particles theorised to solve the strong CP problem, are presently being considered as strong candidates for cold dark matter constituents. The signal power of resonant-based axion detectors, known as haloscopes, is directly proportional to their quality factor Q. In this paper, the impact of the use of superconductors on the performances of haloscopes is studied by evaluating the obtainable Q. In particular, the surface resistance Rs of NbTi, Nb3Sn, YBa2Cu3O7−δ, and FeSe0.5Te0.5 is computed in the frequency, magnetic field, and temperature ranges of interest, starting from the measured vortex motion complex resistivity and the screening lengths of these materials. From Rs, the quality factor Q of a cylindrical haloscope with copper conical bases and a superconductive lateral wall, operating with the TM010 mode, is evaluated and used to perform a comparison of the performances of the different materials. Both YBa2Cu3O7−δ and FeSe0.5Te0.5 are shown to improve the measurement sensitivity by almost an order of magnitude, with respect to a whole Cu cavity, while NbTi is shown to be suitable only at lower frequencies (3Sn can provide an intermediate improvement of the whole spectrum of interest.

Dielectric loaded resonators, by virtue of their high sensitivity, are a de facto standard for the measurement of the microwave surface impedance Z of good conductors, including superconductors. However, new perspective applications of superconductors request measurements in increasingly extreme conditions: cryogenic and magnetic environments, often combined together. Careful evaluations of the dielectric resonator (DR) design are necessary to operate in these conditions. Moreover, the evaluation of the uncertainties and the issues related to an appropriate calibration become problematic. We present here a performance analysis of DRs designed for cryogenic temperature and high magnetic field operation and some sample experimental results on Z measurements on the most technologically interesting superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]