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Superconducting (SC) thin film coatings on Cu substrates are already widely used as an alternative to bulk Nb SRF structures. Using Cu allows improved thermal stability compared to Nb due to having a greater thermal conductivity. Niobium thin film coatings also reduce the amount of Nb required to produce a cavity. The performance of thin film Nb cavities is not as good as bulk Nb cavities. The H2020 ARIES WP15 collaboration studied the impact of substrate polishing and the effect produced on Nb thin film depositions. Multiple samples were produced from Cu and polished with various techniques. The polished Cu substrates were then coated with a Nb film at partner institutions. These samples were characterised with surface characterisation techniques for film morphology and structure. The SC properties were studied with 2 DC techniques, a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and a magnetic field penetration (MFP) facility. The results conclude that both chemical polishing and electropolishing produce the best DC properties in the MFP facility. A comparison between the VSM and the MFP facility can be made for 10 micron thick samples, but not for 3 micron thick samples., Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2021, East Lansing, MI, USA

"Bulk niobium (Nb) has been the material of choice for superconducting RF (SRF) cavities but for further improvement in cavity RF performance, one may have to turn to films of Nb and to other superconducting materials deposited on copper as thermal and mechanical support. Other materials known as A15, such as Nb₃Sn or V₃Si and B1 such as NbTiN and NbN are much easier to synthesise in thin films rather than being made as bulk cavity. The potential benefits of using materials other than Nb would be a higher Tc, a potentially higher critical held Hc, leading to potentially significant cryogenics cost reduction if the cavity operation temperature is 4.2 K or higher. We report on optimising deposition parameters and effect of substrate treatment prior to deposition for successful synthesising of Nb and the alternative superconducting thin film with high superconducting properties (Tc and Hsh) on flat substrates and QPR samples in single layer. The DC and RF SC properties have been tested using PPMS and QPR measurements. This work is part of the H2020 ARIES collaboration. We further report on preparation of RF cavities employing these alternative material for future cavity production.", Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2021, East Lansing, MI, USA

An international collaboration of research teams from CEA (France), CERN (Switzerland), INFN/LNL (Italy), HZB and USI (Germany), IEE (Slovakia), RTU (Latvia) and STFC/DL (UK), are working together on better understanding of how to improve the properties of superconducting thin films (ScTF) for RF cavities. The collaboration has been formed as WP15 in the H2020 ARIES project funded by EC. The systematic study of ScTF covers: Cu substrate polishing with different techniques (EP, SUBU, EP+SUBU, tumbling, laser), Nb, NbN, Nb₃Sn and SIS film deposition and characterisation, Laser post deposition treatments, DC magnetisation characterisation, application of all obtained knowledge on polishing, deposition and characterisation, Laser post deposition treatments, DC magnetisation characterisation, application to the QPR samples for testing the films at RF conditions. The preparation, deposition and characterisation of each sample involves 3-5 partners enhancing the capability of each other and resulting in a more complete analysis of each film. The talk will give an overview of the collaborative research and will be an introduction to the detailed talks given by the team members., Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2021, East Lansing, MI, USA

Nowadays, one of the main issues of the superconducting thin film resonant cavities is the Cu surface preparation. A better understanding of the impact of copper surface preparation on the morphological, superconductive (SC) and RF properties of the coating, is mandatory in order to improve the performances of superconducting cavities by coating techniques. ARIES H₂020 collaboration includes a specific work package (WP15) to study the influence of Cu surface polishing on the SRF performances of Nb coatings that involves a team of 8 research groups from 7 different countries. In the present work, a comparison of 4 different polishing processes for Cu (Tumbling, EP, SUBU, EP+SUBU) is presented through the evaluation of the SC and morphological properties of Nb thin film coated on Cu planar samples and QPR samples, polished with different procedures. Effects of laser annealing on Nb thin films have also been studied. Different surface characterizations have been applied: roughness measurements, SEM, EDS, XRD, AFM, and thermal and photo-stimulated exoelectrons measurements. SC properties were evaluated with PPMS, and QPR measurements will be carry out at HZB in the beginning of 2019., Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2019, Dresden, Germany