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High-Q operation of a superconducting radio frequency cavity can reduce the power loss at the surface and is desirable for continuous-wave operation. To realize the high-Q operation, the surface resistance, which is a sum of the Barden-Cooper-Schrieffer resistance and residual resistance, needs to be reduced. The residual resistance has been found to originate primarily from the magnetic flux trapping in defects in the cavity during the cooling down process. A magnetometer called the “flux gate sensor” has been used to measure the ambient magnetic field; however, this is larger in comparison with the cavity and it is very expensive. Sensors based on the magneto-resistance effect, such as the Anisotropic-Magneto-Resistance (AMR) sensor, are smaller and much less expensive than a flux gate sensor. We examined the characteristics of the magneto-resistance sensors at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature. The results are reported in this paper.

The ever-present native oxide layer on niobium plays a fundamental role in the performance of Nb superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities for particle accelerators and light sources. Using Nb(111) and Nb(100) as model systems, oxygen dissolution and surface structural evolution as a function of thermal treatments in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) were studied using combined Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), providing novel, real space information regarding the complex evolution of the Nb surface oxide. The surface crystallographic orientation was shown to influence oxide surface structure; Nb(111) displayed disordered surface oxide domains while Nb(100) was comprised of well-ordered, (n × 1)-O domains. The temperature-dependent dissolution of the native oxide layer on Nb(100) was characterized to ascertain the energetics for oxygen dissolution, and evolution of the surface oxide superlattice structure following thermal annealing was observed with STM. By understanding the kinetic behavior of oxygen dissolution during thermal annealing and subsequent structural evolution of the Nb(n × 1)-O superlattice on Nb(100), a more thorough understanding of the complex interactions driving chemical composition and cavity surface structure under Nb SRF cavity processing and operating conditions may be understood.

A vertical test for a 500-MHz superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavity succeeded in the RF laboratory of the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center. The test system, consisting of a vertical test cryostat, an RF power amplifier, a tunable coupler, and a low-level RF control system is integrated with the existing long-distance cryogenic transfer system and radiation shield. Relying neither on a gasbag nor a purifier, the vertical test cryostat is directly connected to the 400-W cryogenic plant that simultaneously provides liquid helium to the SRF module in the Taiwan Light Source. Applying special cleaning, drying, and purging processes, the vaporized helium gas suffers no pollution during the vertical tests. The valve on the return line for the gaseous helium regulates the helium pressure of the vertical test cryostat at an acceptable fluctuation of +/– 100 Pa. The measurement results for a KEKB-type 500-MHz SRF cavity are illustrated herein to demonstrate the integrated performance of this measurement system.

At the electron linac for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE) center for high-power radiation sources, the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector has been put into operation and has been routinely applied for user operation at the ELBE electron accelerator. SRF guns are suitable for generating a continuous wave electron beam with high average currents and high beam brightness. The SRF gun at ELBE has the goal to generate short electron pulses with bunch charges of 200–300 pC at typical repetition rates of 100 kHz for the production of superradiant, coherent terahertz radiation. The SRF gun includes a 3.5-cell, 1.3-GHz niobium cavity and a superconducting solenoid. A support system with liquid nitrogen (LN_{2}) cooling allows the operation of normal-conducting, high quantum efficiency photocathodes. We present the design and performance of the SRF gun as well as beam measurement results of the operation with Mg photocathodes at an acceleration gradient of 8 MV/m (4 MeV kinetic energy). In the last section, we discuss the SRF gun application for production of coherent terahertz radiation at the ELBE facility.

Applied physics letters 119(19), 194102 (2021). doi:10.1063/5.0063379, A fundamental understanding of superconducting radio frequency Nb cavity processing is necessary to achieve the desired improvement in their performance, which is needed for further upgrades of modern particle accelerators. To recognize the physical processes behind the losses in the accelerator modules, it is required to address not only the observed improvements but also the degradation occurring after different surface treatments. Here, we report on microscopic and spectroscopic studies of several cutouts from an extremely well performing cavity, which showed a systematic degradation after modified surface treatments and annealing conditions. Our results suggest that an abundance of low-angle grain boundaries surrounding the small sized grains can be related to the local superconductivity breakdown at high accelerating field gradients. Losses due to grain boundary segregated carbides are discussed to being most dominant and to leading to an anomalous Q-degradation of the whole cavity starting at low fields., Published by American Inst. of Physics, Melville, NY

The high-energy particle accelerator uses the fundamental mode of the superconducting radio frequency cavity to accelerate the charged particle beam, and when the charged particle beam passes through the radio frequency(RF) cavity, it will excite a series of harmful higher-order modes(HOMs) besides the fundamental mode. The 3D simulation software is used for 9-cell TESLA superconducting acceleration cavity HOM simulation calculation. Analyze the mode spectrum distribution of each HOM and the performance parameters that characterize the HOM, and identify harmful HOMs.

High brightness, high charge electron beams are critical for a number of advanced accelerator applications. The initial emittance of the electron beam, which is determined by the mean transverse energy (MTE) and laser spot size, is one of the most important parameters determining the beam quality. The bialkali photocathodes illuminated by a visible laser have the advantages of high quantum efficiency (QE) and low MTE. Furthermore, Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) guns can operate in the continuous wave (CW) mode at high accelerating gradients, e.g. with significant reduction of the laser spot size at the photocathode. Combining the bialkali photocathode with the SRF gun enables generation of high charge, high brightness, and possibly high average current electron beams. However, integrating the high QE semiconductor photocathode into the SRF guns has been challenging. In this article, we report on the development of bialkali photocathodes for successful operation in the SRF gun with months-long lifetime while delivering CW beams with nano-coulomb charge per bunch. This achievement opens a new era for high charge, high brightness CW electron beams.

Energy recovery linear accelerators (ERLs) rely upon single-axis superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities to be an efficient source of relativistic electrons for high energy and nuclear physics. SRF cavities are also considered relevant for next-generation photon factories and radio-isotope production facilities. The ultimate energy recovery capability for the accelerator would be the ability to operate with a sufficiently spent beam and decrease the energy of the beam before the beam dump to a value lower than the beam injection energy. This is especially important for high current accelerators, where the beam injection energy could be as high as several MeV, and systems where partial beam loss can be expected. The efficient operation of energy recovery in linear accelerators is adversely affected by the typical degradation of the beam quality and current loss. This hinders the application of the ERLs in research and industry, and enabling the use of spent (partially lost current), degraded beams should broaden their application. We suggest that the use of the asymmetric operating mode observed in the dual-axis asymmetric cavities will enable such ultimate capabilities. We discuss the advantages of the application of fields of different amplitude along the cavity accelerating and decelerating axes and demonstrate that the fields can be tuned separately in each axis of the dual-axis cavity. The design of such a cavity and ways to optimize the energy recovery of a spent electron beam by tuning the dual-axis asymmetric SRF cavity are discussed.

Continuous-wave photoinjectors operating at high accelerating gradients promise to revolutionize many areas of science and applications. They can establish the basis for a new generation of monochromatic x-ray free electron lasers, high-brightness hadron beams, or a new generation of microchip production. In this Letter we report on the record-performing superconducting rf electron gun with CsK_{2}Sb photocathode. The gun is generating high charge electron bunches (up to 10 nC/bunch) and low transverse emittances, while operating for months with a single photocathode. This achievement opens a new era in generating high-power beams with a very high average brightness.

The Accelerator Driven Sub-critical (ADS) system is a strategic plan to solve the nuclear waste problem for nuclear power plants in China. High-energy particle accelerators and colliders contain long strings of superconducting devices, superconducting radio frequency cavities, and magnets, which may require cooling by 2 K superfluid helium (Helium II). 2 K superfluid helium cryogenic system has become a research hot spot in the field of superconducting accelerators. In this study, the ADS Injector-I 2 K cryogenic system is examined in detail. The cryogenic system scheme design, key equipment, and technology design, such as the 2 K Joule–Thomson (J–T) heat exchanger and cryomodules CM1 + CM2 design, are examined, in addition to the commissioning and operation of the cryogenic system. The ADS Injector-I 2 K cryogenic system is the first 100 W superfluid helium system designed and built independently in China. The ADS proton beam reached 10 MeV at 10 mA in July 2016 and 10 MeV at 2 mA in continuous mode in January 2017 and has been operated reliably for over 15,000 h, proving that the design of ADS Injector-I 2 K cryogenic system, the key equipment, and technology research are reasonable, reliable, and meet the requirements. The research into key technologies provides valuable engineering experience that can be helpful for future projects such as CI-ADS (China Initiative Accelerator-Driven System), SHINE (Shanghai High Repetition Rate XFEL and Extreme Light Facility), PAPS (Platform of Advanced Photon Source Technology), and CEPC (Circular Electron-Positron Collider), thereby developing national expertise in the field of superfluid helium cryogenic systems.

Superconducting radio-frequency cavities are commonly used in modern particle accelerators for applied and fundamental research. Such cavities are typically made of high-purity, bulk Nb and with cooling by a liquid helium bath at a temperature of ~2 K. The size, cost and complexity of operating a particle accelerator with a liquid helium refrigerator makes the current cavity technology not favorable for use in industrial-type accelerators. We developed a multi-metallic 1.495 GHz elliptical cavity conductively cooled by a cryocooler. The cavity has a ~2 μm thick layer of Nb3Sn on the inner surface, exposed to the rf field, deposited on a ~3 mm thick bulk Nb shell and a bulk Cu shell, of thickness ≥ 5 mm deposited on the outer surface by electroplating. A bolt-on Cu plate 1.27 cm thick was used to thermally connect the cavity equator to the second stage of a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler with a nominal capacity of 2 W at 4.2 K. The cavity was tested initially in liquid helium at 4.3 K and reached a peak surface magnetic field of ~36 mT with a quality factor of 2 × 109. The cavity cooled by the crycooler achieved a peak surface magnetic field of ~29 mT, equivalent to an accelerating gradient of 6.5 MV/m. The conduction-cooled cavity could be operated in continuous-wave with as high as 5 W dissipation in the cavity for 1 h without any thermal breakdown, because of the Cu outer layer with high thermal conductivity. This result represents a paradigm shift in the technology of superconducting accelerator cavities.

The first in-house, 9-cell, superconducting radio-frequency cavity made of large grain Nb was fabricated at KEK. Some characteristic techniques were employed for the fabrication that were not used for fine grain (FG) Nb. Even though a penetrated hole was created during electron beam welding, it was successfully repaired and did not affect the cavity performance. The completed cavity then underwent vertical tests (VTs) via several surface treatment processes. A defect that caused quenches was found after a VT at 25 mm from the equator where the typical local grinding machine developed at KEK could not be utilized. A new local grinding machine using a 3D printer was thus developed for the first time, and it completely removed this defect. Finally, the cavity achieved a maximum Q 0 value of 3.8 × 1010 and accelerating gradient of 38 MV/m. The obtained Q 0 value is about 1.5 times higher than that for the KEK in-house FG cavity.

Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities are fundamental building blocks of modern particle accelerators. They operate at liquid helium temperatures (2–4 K) to achieve very high quality factors (1010–1011). Trapping of magnetic flux within the superconductor is a significant contribution to the residual RF losses, which limit the achievable quality factor. Suitable diagnostic tools are in high demand to understand the mechanisms of flux trapping in technical superconductors, and the fundamental components of such diagnostic tools are magnetic field sensors. We have studied the performance of commercially available Hall probes, anisotropic magnetoresistive sensors, and flux-gate magnetometers with respect to their sensitivity and capability to detect localized, low magnetic flux amplitudes, of the order of a few tens of magnetic flux quantum at liquid helium temperatures. Although Hall probes have the lowest magnetic field sensitivity (∼96 nV/μT at 2 K), their physical dimensions are such that they have the ability to detect the lowest number of trapped vortices among the three types of sensors. Hall probes and anisotropic magnetoresistive sensors have been selected to be used in a setup to map regions of trapped flux on the surface of a single-cell SRF cavity.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is in the process of being upgraded to a superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator and renamed LCLS-II. This upgrade requires thirty five 1.3 GHz SRF cryomodules (CM) and two 3.9 GHz CM. A cryogenic distribution system (CDS) is in development by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to interconnect the CM Linac with the cryogenic plant (CP). The CDS design utilizes cryogenic helium to support the CM operations with a high temperature thermal shield around 55 K, a low temperature thermal intercepts around 5 K, and a SRF cavity liquid helium supply and subatmospheric vapor return both around 2 K. Additionally the design must accommodate a Linac consisting of two parallel cryogenic strings, supported by two independent CP utilizing CDS components such as distribution boxes, transfer lines, feed caps and endcaps. The paper describes the overall layout of the cryogenic distribution system and the major thermodynamic factors which influence the CDS design including heat loads, pressure drops, temperature profiles, and pressure relieving requirements. In addition the paper describes how the models are created to perform the analyses., 4 pp

The heat load of the original cryomodules for the continuous electron beam accelerator facility is ~50% higher than the target value of 100 W at 2.07 K for refurbished cavities operating at an accelerating gradient of 12.5 MV/m. This issue is due to the quality factor of the cavities being ~50% lower in the cryomodule than when tested in a vertical cryostat, even at low RF field. Previous studies were not conclusive about the origin of the additional losses. We present the results of a systematic study of the additional losses in a five-cell cavity from a decommissioned cryomodule after attaching components, which are part of the cryomodule, such as the cold tuner, the He tank, and the cold magnetic shield, prior to cryogenic testing in a vertical cryostat. Flux-gate magnetometers and temperature sensors are used as diagnostic elements. Different cool-down procedures and tests in different residual magnetic fields were investigated during the study. Three flux-gate magnetometers attached to one of the cavities installed in the refurbished cryomodule C50-12 confirmed the hypothesis of high residual magnetic field as a major cause for the increased RF losses.

The new LCLS-II Linear Superconducting Accelerator at SLAC needs superconducting magnet packages installed inside SCRF (superconducting radio frequency technology) cryomodules to focus and steer an electron beam. Two magnet prototypes were built and successfully tested at Fermilab. Magnets have an iron-dominated configuration, quadrupole and dipole NbTi superconducting coils, and splittable in the vertical plane configuration. Magnets inside the cryomodule are conductively cooled through pure Al heat sinks. Both magnets' performance was verified by magnetic measurements at room temperature, and during cold tests in liquid helium. Test results including magnetic measurements are discussed. Special attention was given to the magnet performance at low currents where the iron yoke and the superconductor hysteresis effects have large influence. Both magnet prototypes were accepted for the installation in FNAL and JLAB prototype cryomodules.

The superconducting magnet is effective to get a high stable and high magnetic field for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The current MRI superconducting magnet needed cooling in the liquid helium (4.2 K) to use NbTi superconducting wire. In the past few years, price increase and low availability of liquid helium has become a serious problem. Under such circumstances, the development of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coil dispensing with liquid helium cooling is greatly desired. The research and development project of the high stable magnetic field ReBCO coil system fundamental technology that started from the latter half of 2013 develops a ReBCO coil for 3 T MRI superconducting magnets. It gets a prospect of the practical use as the final aim. In this project, we will produce an HTS test coil of 300 mm bore experimentally and evaluate the magnetic field. This coil is cooled in less than 20 K by a GM refrigerator. We are going to make MRI used by the ReBCO coil field to evaluate the uniformity and stability of the magnetic field.

The use of non-evaporable getter (NEG) pumps in particle accelerators has increased significantly over the past few years because of their large pumping speed, particularly for hydrogen, compared to the size of the pump. A concern about using such pumps in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) accelerators is the possibility of shedding particulates which could then migrate into the SRF cavities and produce field emission, therefore degrading the cavity performance. One option to mitigate such issue is to use sintered getter materials which intrinsically offer superior mechanical and particle retention properties. In this article we present the results from cryogenic RF tests of a high-gradient SRF cavity after being evacuated several times with an NEG pump equipped with sintered getter disks and placed in close proximity to the cavity. The results showed that the cavity performance was not affected by the pump up to the quench gradient of 34 MV/m. As a result of this study, two such NEG pumps have been installed next to a cryomodule in the CEBAF accelerator to maintain ultra-high vacuum in the SRF cryomodule and two adjacent warm girder sections.

In particle accelerators it's important to have a stable accelerating system for the beams of particles. The accelerator cavity should be controlled under it's resonance frequency with no disturbance to get the best performance. The particles would be accelerated to the highest desired speed. The Detuning of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities is mainly caused by the Lorentz force, which is the radiation pressure induced by a high radio frequency (RF) field, and environmental mechanical vibrations that induce undesirable interference signals referred to as microphonics. The above factors can be described by a second order differential equation of the mechanical vibration modes of the cavity. In this paper three dominant mechanical vibration modes for the system has been considered and a control scheme has been designed based on input-output linearization. The stability analysis system has been considered by defining a Lyapunov function. It is shown through simulation studies that the proposed control technique can successfully the suppress microphonic noise due to the SRF cavity's dynamics.

The twofold goals of this work are (i) to reduce the lack of experimental data in literature concerning the effects of temperature and mechanical strain on magnetic properties of the Ni-Fe alloy Cryophy, and (ii) to validate its use as magnetic shield material for last-generation cryomodule prototypes of crab cavities used in particle accelerators for transverse deflection. The relative magnetic permeability was measured at room and cryogenic temperature, and its lowest value at 4 K fits the minimum design criteria of 100,000 for the crab cavities experiment at CERN. Permeability after uniaxial plastic deformation between 0% and 3% was also measured by means of an Epstein frame. Results show that deformation induces a significant decrease in the magnetic performances, underlining that particular care must be taken during all stages of handling and operation. Finally, the attenuation inside the magnetic shields was tested for the prototype Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. Results highlight that at 150 mm from the opening, the magnetic field is shielded as required.

Cryogenic system working at 2 K is crucial for superconducting accelerator. A 70 W@2 K cryogenic system was developed for the testing of superconducting cavities used in the China Initiative Accelerator Driven System (CiADS). There will be more than 257 superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities to be vertically tested in the next three years. The system is designed with 2 testing dewars and the cool down/warm up processes of two dewars can be conducted simultaneously, so that the interval between each test can be reduced to minimum. The system process was designed and heat loads were analyzed under practical conditions. The parameters’ calculation and design of the core equipment, such as sub-atmospheric heat exchanger, valve box, vertical testing dewar, and vacuum pump set, are described in detail. First cooling down experiment was carried out successfully, realizing a continuous cooling down process from 300 K to 4.5 K in 30 h, and then reaching 2 K in another 2.5 h.

Operational availability is a critical performance measure for an accelerator facility in modern time. A high availability enables the facility to serve a wide range of users simultaneously. Consequently, besides pure accelerator physics considerations, newly proposed accelerator facilities account for the availability and reliability aspects in the design phases. It allows incorporation of appropriate mitigation strategies for the most vulnerable systems in the machine and therefore, minimizes unscheduled interruptions during the operation. This paper lays out a methodology for the availability assessment of the complete particle accelerator facility and presents an initial assessment of the availability of the newly proposed Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) accelerator facility at Fermilab. The paper describes a comprehensive reliability model of the PIP-II facility that comprises not only 800 MeV linear accelerator (linac) system but also essential utility systems in the form of cryogenic, water, power and air systems. The paper details estimations of the availability of the PIP-II facility for two operational modes i.e. the nominal operational mode featuring 800 MeV beam and critical operational mode involving operation with the lowest objective beam energy of 600 MeV.

Here, we report a demonstration of electron beam generation in a superconducting radio frequency (SRF) Teraelectronvolt Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator 1.3 GHz gun equipped with a field emission cathode and operated at 2 K. The cathode is a submicrometer film of nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond [(N)UNCD] deposited atop a Nb RRR300 cathode plug that is 4 mm in diameter. Measurements of the output current showed that it increased exponentially as a function of the gun gradient. Our results demonstrate a feasible path toward simplified fully cryogenic SRF injector technology. At a maximal gradient of 0.9 MV/m, a current density of 22 μA/cm2 was obtained [calculated as a 2.75 μA current over the total cathode surface area of π(2 mm)2]. One important finding is that the electron emitter made of (N)UNCD, a material long been known as a highly efficient field emission material, demonstrated a record low turn-on gradient of 0.6 MV/m. A hypothesis explaining this behavior is proposed.

This paper presents a simplification method for finite element models for the calculation of AC losses in stacks of superconducting tapes. A fast and accurate model of these losses can be exploited in the design of large-scale superconducting applications, where the coils are represented as stacks of tapes in 2D models. The simplification method aggregates the superconducting, substrate, and copper layers of several windings of the superconducting tape to form bulk elements. The resulting model is able to evaluate the AC losses in the superconducting layer faster than the full model. The accuracy of the proposed method and decrease in computation time are shown.

The power supply based on the full-wave superconducting rectifier is used for excitation of the main superconducting solenoid of the KEDR universal magnetic detector at the VEPP-4 collider. The rectifier consists of the air-core superconducting transformer and two thermally controlled superconducting switches. Several superconducting switch designs were developed, in order to achieve appropriate parameters of the rectifier operation. The present version of the switches was designed and tested in November 2013. The rectifier is cooled with a liquid helium bath. The primary winding of the superconducting transformer is excited with an ac current amplitude of 28 A at a voltage amplitude of 5 V. The heat power used for a superconducting switch control is 2.7 W. The power supply provides rising the magnetic field inside the KEDR main solenoid, long-term stabilization, and lowering the field to zero. The inductance of the solenoid is 1.2 H. The usual operating magnetic field is 0.6 T, which corresponds to the 2.4-kA current in the solenoid winding and 3.46 MJ of stored energy. The power supply pumps the field up to 0.6 T, within 110 h, and can keep it constant for several months. In this paper, the design, parameters, and performance of the superconducting rectifier are discussed.

The High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility is a new major engineering project in the Institute of Modern Physics. The dipole magnets of the booster ring are conceived as fast-cycled superconducting magnets with a high magnetic field and a large gap, the warm iron and superconducting coil structure (superferric) is adopted. The coil is wound with a Nuclotron-type superconducting cable to reduce the ac loss. The magnet with a large operation current and a low inductance assures the fast-pulsed operation. Based on the superconducting cable with large operation current, the design of a superconducting coil prototype is shown in this paper. The magnetic field analysis based on 3-D-OPERA is carried out to obtain the basic dimension of coils. Then, the design of the Nuclotron-type superconducting cable, the coil, and coil case are described in detail. In addition, fabrication of the superconducting cable, the coil winding, and other components are also introduced in this paper.

The Superconducting Link project at CERN aims at developing helium-gas-cooled high-current electrical transfer lines for the powering of the superconducting magnets, which are being developed in the framework of the High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider. A candidate conductor for the cables is magnesium diboride (MgB 2 ) round wire operated at temperatures of up to 25 K. One of the most important factors to be taken into account during the design phase is quench protection. In this work, we investigate the quench behavior of high-current cables made of MgB 2 . The wires were produced by Columbus Superconductors. The cables are operated in the Superconducting Link Test Station at CERN, which are cooled by helium gas at temperatures between 10 and 30 K. The propagation of the quench front is monitored by means of voltage and temperature sensors installed on the cables. Results of the measurements are compared to numerical simulations, in order to validate the models and quantify the parameters related to quench propagation and protection. The ultimate goal is to devise a quench protection strategy suitable for the safe and reliable operation of the Superconducting Link circuits.

This article attempts to give a historical account and review of technological developments and innovations in radio frequency (RF) systems for particle accelerators. The evolution from electrostatic field to the use of RF voltage suggested by R. Wideroe made it possible to overcome the shortcomings of electrostatic accelerators, which limited the maximum achievable electric field due to voltage breakdown. After an introduction, we will provide reviews of technological developments of RF systems for particle accelerators.

Fermilab has proposed an upgrade of its proton accelerator complex based on construction of a new superconducting radio frequency linac. The plan is structured to deliver, in a cost effective manner, more than 1 MW of beam power to the neutrino production target at the initiation of the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility, while simultaneously creating a flexible platform for longer-term development of the Fermilab complex to multi-MW capabilities in support of a broader research program.

A new in-situ plasma processing technique is being developed at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) to improve the performance of the cavities in operation. The technique utilizes a low-density reactive oxygen plasma at room temperature to remove top surface hydrocarbons. The plasma processing technique increases the work function of the cavity surface and reduces the overall amount of vacuum and electron activity during cavity operation; in particular it increases the field emission onset, which enables cavity operation at higher accelerating gradients. Experimental evidence also suggests that the SEY of the Nb surface decreases after plasma processing which helps mitigating multipacting issues. In this article, the main developments and results from the plasma processing R&D are presented and experimental results for in-situ plasma processing of dressed cavities in the SNS horizontal test apparatus are discussed.

Niobium superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities enable the operation of modern superconducting accelerator facilities. These cavities do not approach the theoretical performance limits of Nb due to the deleterious effects of surface defects and chemical inhomogeneities such as Nb hydrides. Nitrogen doping is known to consistently increase the cavity performance and inhibit Nb hydride growth, but a comprehensive understanding of Nb hydride growth and suppression is not yet realized. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations presented herein elucidate the real-time, nanoscale structural and electronic evolution of undoped, hydrogen doped, and hydrogen and nitrogen doped Nb(100) due to the growth and suppression of Nb nano-hydrides. DFT calculations in agreement with the experimental data found unique near-surface phases stabilized upon dopant incorporation. The experimental STM and STS results and DFT calculations reported herein provide the first in situ and real-time nanoscale visualization and characterization of the effects of nitrogen doping on Nb hydride suppression and growth. Such information allows for further optimization of nitrogen doping procedures and advances in the performance of SRF materials for next-generation SRF-based accelerators and free electron lasers.

There exists a need for reliable, high-power electron sources for applications including those in discovery science, security, medical and industrial engineering. Today, there are many examples of high-average-power electron sources, but they are not, for instance, simultaneously compact, highly efficient, and available at a reasonable cost. Exploiting recent advances in superconducting, radio-frequency (SRF) cavities and RF power sources as well as innovative solutions for the SRF gun and cathode system, we have developed a design concept for a truly compact, SRF, high-average power electron linac source integrating a thermionic cathode system. Potentially capable of 50 kW average power and continuous-wave operation, this accelerator design will produce electron beams with energies up to 10 MeV. In this paper, we present in detail the electromagnetic design results of our 9-cell accelerating structure with its integrated, thermionic cathode structure.

Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities are used in modern accelerators to efficiently accelerate particles. When cavity is supplied with pulsed RF field it undergoes a mechanical strain due to the Lorentz force. The resulting deformation causes dynamic detuning whose amplitude depends on mechanical properties of the cavity, RF pulse rate and their profile. This effect causes considerable loss of acceleration performance. Therefore, it is usually actively compensated, most commonly with fast piezoelectric actuators. MicroTCA.4 standard was developed to accommodate control and data acquisition electronic systems of large-scale physics applications. The paper presents a design of high-power amplifier implemented using the MicroTCA.4 technology. The design of the driver was optimized for driving large-capacitance piezo actuators. Several possible architectures of the driver are presented and compared, taking into consideration the power and cooling limitations of MicroTCA.4. The design of a two-channel piezo driver and its initial laboratory test results are also discussed., 2 pages, 3 figures, short form for Real-Time 2018 Conference

A bialkali photocathode with the quantum efficiency (QE) in the range of a few percent was fabricated for the 704 MHz SRF gun at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The photoemission properties of the bialkali photocathode in the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) gun were measured for the first time, and a good beam experiment result was obtained. The performance of the bialkali photocathode was investigated during the commissioning process of the 704 MHz SRF gun. The effect of electric field on the QE of the cryo-cooled cathode was characterized by an analytical model and a code for the first time.

A compact Inverse Compton Light Source (ICLS) design is presented, with flux and brilliance orders of magnitude beyond conventional laboratory-scale sources and other compact ICLS designs. This design utilizes the physics of inverse Compton scattering of an extremely low emittance electron beam by a laser pulse of rms length of approximately two-thirds of a picosecond (2/3 ps). The accelerator is composed of a superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) reentrant gun followed by four double-spoke SRF cavities. After the linac are three quadrupole magnets to focus the electron beam to the interaction point (IP). The distance from cathode surface to IP is less than 6 meters, with the cathode producing electron bunches with a bunch charge of 10 pC and a few picoseconds in length. The incident laser has 1 MW circulating power, a 1 micron wavelength, and a spot size of 3.2 microns at the IP. The repetition rate of this source is 100 MHz, in order to achieve a high flux despite the low bunch charge. The anticipated X-ray source parameters include an energy of 12 keV, with a total flux of $1.4\times10^{14}$ ph/s, the flux into a 0.1% bandwidth of $2.1\times10^{11}$ ph/(s-0.1%BW), and the average brilliance of $2.2\times10^{15}$ ph/(s-mm$^2$-mrad$^2$-0.1%BW)., 19 pages, 18 figures; Submitted to Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams

Construction of the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) is underway for the world's first hard x-ray free-electron laser. A central part of the LCLS-II project is a 4 GeV superconducting radio frequency electron linac that will operate in the continuous wave (cw) mode. The linac is segmented into four sections named as $L0$, $L1$, $L2$, and $L3$. Two 3.9 GHz cryomodules, each housing of eight third-harmonic cavities similar to the cavities developed for the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL), will be used in section $L1$ of the linac for linearizing the longitudinal beam profile. In this paper, we present a study of trapped high order modes (HOMs) excited by a cw electron beam in the third-harmonic cavities of the LCLS-II linac. A detailed comparison of the original XFEL design and the LCLS-II design with a modified end group is performed in order to estimate the effect of a reduced beam pipe aperture on the efficiency of HOM damping. Furthermore, we apply a statistical analysis of the eigenmode spectrum for the estimation of the probability of resonant HOM losses and influence of HOMs on beam dynamics.

To obtain low-emittance electron beams with high average current, superconducting radio frequency photocathode guns have been developed by several laboratories worldwide. A DC-SRF injector, which combines a DC pierce gun and a superconducting cavity, has been developed at Peking University. Recently, stable operation of the DC-SRF photoinjector has produced encouraging results. The average beam current of 1 mA in macropulses of 7 ms with a repetition rate of 10 Hz has been reached and can be kept at about 0.5 mA for routine operation. In this paper, we describe the DC-SRF photoinjector and will discuss the experiments and the test results.

An optimal electron-beam welding operating regime for ultra-pure sheet niobium has been developed for use in a superconducting resonator for the International Linear Collider (ILC). The formation of weld joints is studied and their microstructure and microhardness are investigated taking the required geometry of the weld seams into account. Low-temperature electrical measurements in magnetic fields up to 2 T are used to determine the critical parameters of the superconducting transition in the weld area. From the standpoint of the superconducting properties of the resonator, the slight degradation in the characteristics of sheet niobium observed in the thermally affected area (about 10% on average) is not of fundamental importance.

A superconducting solenoid-based focusing lens was designed and built for use in the SSR1 cryomodule of PXIE test facility at FNAL. As the cryomodule contains superconducting spoke-type cavities, one of main goals during design stage was minimization of magnetic field on walls of the cavities. The design also attempted minimization of the uncertainty of the magnetic axis position in the lens. This report describes main features of the design and summarizes results of performance tests and magnetic axis position measurements.

There are very strong requirements for the magnets with very high magnetic field for experimental facilities used in the new generations of special material processing devices. A high magnetic field superconducting magnet has been designed with the center field of 8 T, warm bore of 100 mm, and warm split-gap of 100 mm. The maximum magnetic field in the superconducting winding is about 11 T. Two GM cryocoolers are employed to cool down the system. The magnet consists of two high temperature superconducting coils with commercially available Bi-2223 tapes and six NbTi superconducting coils. There is very strong attractive force between the split-pairs coils. The design, fabrication and test of the superconducting magnet are reported in this paper.

Superconducting magnets are key components to store energy for a superconducting magnet energy storage system (SMES). The quench of superconducting magnets will affect the normal operation of SMES, and even damage the device. So a quick and precise quench detection is needed to ensure the safety of SMES. During the dynamic power compensation, the current flowing in the superconducting magnet is not constant, and shows high frequency components due to the switching of the converter. This paper proposes a flux induction based quench detection method that can compensate nearly all the inductive voltage and electromagnetic noise. Furthermore, it can be used to locate the exact quench position. The principle of this new method is analyzed, and a quench detection scheme for a 35 kJ HTS SMES is designed. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by a test experiment.

The first long shutdown (LS1) of the LHC machine at CERN started in February 2013. The main trigger for LS1 was the consolidation of the bus bar joints in the 13-kA superconducting magnet circuits. Before LS1, the copper continuity of these joints was not sufficiently good to ensure a safe passage of the current in case of a quench in the superconducting cable at currents larger than 7-8 kA. The consolidation mainly consists in adding shunts made of high conductivity copper across each joint connecting the bus bars of the neighboring magnets in order to ensure the copper continuity. After LS1, the LHC can then be operated up to the original nominal conditions, i.e., a collision energy of 14 TeV. There are 1695 interconnects, each containing six 13-kA joints, of which two belong to the main dipole circuit and four to the main quadrupole circuits. This paper describes the different steps of the consolidation work performed on the 10 170 magnet-to-magnet joints. The work on the splices proper has been organized in the form of a train made of six production teams, all together consisting of about 90 persons, including operators, supervision, and quality assurance. The work flow is managed with the help of a web-based tool called WISH. This paper describes as well the quality control and quality assurance methods put in place to ensure the quality of the work throughout the project, and it summarizes the benefits of the consolidation work in terms of copper continuity, operation margin, and robustness of the new insulation system.

Pb thin films were prepared by the nanosecond pulsed laser deposition technique on Si (100) and polycrystalline Nb substrates for photocathode application. As the photoemission performances of a cathode are strongly affected by its surface characteristics, the Pb films were grown at different substrate temperatures with the aim of modifying the morphology and structure of thin films. An evident morphological modification in the deposited films with the formation of spherical grains at higher temperatures has been observed. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that a preferred orientation of Pb (111) normal to the substrate was achieved at 30 °C while the Pb (200) plane became strongly pronounced with the increase in the substrate temperature. Finally, a Pb thin film deposited on Nb substrate at 30 °C and tested as the photocathode showed interesting results for the application of such a device in superconducting radio frequency guns.

Equipment, such as a vacuum furnace, high pressure rinse (HPR), eddy current test (ECT) and buffered chemical polishing (BCP), are installed in the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) test facility. Three different sizes of cryostats (diameters of 600 mm for a quarter wave resonator (QWR), 900 mm for a half wave resonator (HWR), and 1200 mm for single spoke resonator 1&2 (SSR 1&2)) for vertical RF tests are installed for testing cavities. We confirmed that as-received niobium sheets (ASTM B393, RRR300) good electrical properties because they showed average residual resistance ratio (RRR) values higher than 300. However, serious RRR degradation occurred after joining two pieces of Nb by e-beam welding because the average RRR values of the samples were ∼179, which was only ∼60% of as-received RRR value. From various e-beam welding experiments in which the welding current and a speed at a fixed welding voltage were changed, we confirmed that good welding results were obtained at a 53 mA welding current and a 20-mm/s welding speed at a fixed welding voltage of 150 kV.

LCLS-II is a proposed upgrade of the most powerful X-ray laser in the world built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. When complete, multiple free electron laser (FEL) sections will be powered by a continuous wave superconducting radio frequency (SRF) electron linac. The vital parameters for FEL radiation quality are beam emittance and beam transverse position stability. Excitation of high order modes (HOM) in SRF niobium cavities leads to additional beam power dissipation through incoherent and coherent losses. Energy stored in HOM may cause cumulative effects — transverse and longitudinal position displacement of the center of bunches, which leads to transverse and longitudinal emittance dilution. Cumulative effects due to dipole HOM excitation in LCLS-II are analyzed. Transition HOM effects are caused by sudden changes (periodic or single case) in the beam bunch structure. Bunch center position disturbance due to transition HOM effects is estimated.

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has proposed to build an electron ion collider (EIC) as an upgrade to the existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). A part of the new design is to use superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities for acceleration, which sit in a bath of superfluid helium at a temperature of 2 K. SRF cavities designed for the BNL EIC create a standing electromagnetic wave, oscillating at a fundamental frequency of 647 MHz. Interaction of the charged particle beam with the EM field in the cavity creates higher order modes (HOM) of oscillation which have adverse effects on the beam when allowed to propagate down the beam tube. HOM waveguides are thus designed to remove this excess energy which is then damped at room temperature. As a result, these waveguides provide a direct thermal link between room temperature and the superconducting cavities adding a static thermal load. The EM wave propagating through the warmer sections of the waveguide creates an additional dynamic thermal load. This study calculates these thermal loads, concluding that the dynamic load is small in comparison to the static load. Temperature distributions are mapped on the waveguide and the number of heat intercepts required to efficiently manage thermal loads have been determined. In addition, a thermal radiation study has been performed and it is found that this contribution is around three orders of magnitude smaller than the static conduction and dynamic loads.