Cornell University (CLASSE), Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences and Education, Ithaca, New York, USA
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
The native niobium oxide layer present on niobium has been shown to affect the performace of superconducting RF cavities. Extremely thin layers of gold on the surface of niobium have the potential to suppress surface oxidation and improve cavity performance. However, depositing uniform layers of gold at the desired thickness (sub-nm) is difficult, and different deposition methods may have different effects on the gold surface, on the niobium surface, and on the interface between the two. In particular, the question of whether gold deposition actually passivates the niobium oxide is extremely relevant for assessing the potential of gold deposition to improve RF performance. This work builds on previous research studying the RF performance of gold/niobium bilayers with different gold layer thicknesses. We here consider alternative methods to characterize the composition and chemical properties of gold/niobium bilayers to supplement the previous RF study.
