Date Awarded
Summer 2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Physics
Advisor
Rosa A Lukaszew
Committee Member
David S Armstrong
Committee Member
Henry Krakauer
Committee Member
Eugeniy E Mikhailov
Committee Member
Charles Reece
Abstract
Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities are responsible for the acceleration of charged particles to relativistic velocities in most modern linear accelerators, such as those employed at high-energy research facilities like Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory’s CEBAF and the LHC at CERN. Recognizing SRF as primarily a surface phenomenon enables the possibility of applying thin films to the interior surface of SRF cavities, opening a formidable tool chest of opportunities by combining and designing materials that offer greater benefit. Thus, while improvements in radio frequency cavity design and refinements in cavity processing techniques have improved accelerator performance and efficiency – 1.5 GHz bulk niobium SRF cavities have achieved accelerating gradients in excess of 35 MV/m – there exist fundamental material bounds in bulk superconductors limiting the maximally sustained accelerating field gradient (approximately 45 MV/m for Niobium) where inevitable thermodynamic breakdown occurs. With state of the art niobium based cavity design fast approaching these theoretical limits, novel material innovations must be sought in order to realize next generation SRF cavities. One proposed method to improve SRF performance is to utilize thin film superconducting-insulating-superconducting (SIS) multilayer structures to effectively magnetically screen a bulk superconducting layer such that it can operate at higher field gradients before suffering critically detrimental SRF losses. This dissertation focuses on the production and characterization of thin film superconductors for such SIS layers for radio-frequency applications.
DOI
http://doi.org/10.21220/S2S087
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Beringer, Douglas, "Thin Film Approaches to The Srf Cavity Problem: Fabrication and Characterization of Superconducting Thin Films" (2016). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1499449840.
http://doi.org/10.21220/S2S087
