JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
Nb₃Sn offers the prospect of better RF performance (Q and Eacc) than niobium at any given temperature because of its superior superconducting properties. Nb₃Sn-coated SRF cavities are routinely produced by growing a few microns thick Nb₃Sn film on Nb cavities via tin vapor diffusion. It has been observed that a clean and smooth surface can enhance the performance of the Nb₃Sn-coated cavity, typically, the attainable acceleration gradient. The reduction of surface roughness is often linked with a correlative reduction in average coating thickness and grain size. Besides Sn supply’s careful tuning, the temperature profiles were varied to reduce the surface roughness as low as ~40 nm in 20 µm × 20 µm AFM scans, one-third that of the typical coating. Samples were systematically coated inside a mock single-cell cavity and examined using different material characterization techniques. A few sets of coating parameters were used to coat 1.3 GHz single-cell cavities to understand the effects of roughness variation on the RF performance. This presentation will discuss ways to reduce surface roughness with results from a systematic analysis of the samples and Nb₃Sn-coated single-cell cavities.
