Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Cornell University (CLASSE), Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences and Education, Ithaca, New York, USA
Experiments on superconducting cavities have found that under large RF fields the quality factor can improve with increasing field amplitude, a so-called anti-Q slope. We numerically solve the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations at a superconducting surface in a parallel magnetic field, finding at large fields there are surface quasiparticle states with energies below the bulk superconducting gap that emerge and disappear as the field cycles. Modifying the standard two-fluid model, we introduce a ‘‘three’’-fluid model where we partition the normal fluid to consider continuum and surface quasiparticle states separately. We compute dissipation in a semi-classical theory of conductivity, where we provide physical estimates of elastic scattering times of Bogoliubov quasiparticles with point-like impurities having potential strengths informed from complementary ab initio calculations of impurities in bulk niobium. We show, in this simple yet effective framework, how the relative scattering rates of surface and continuum quasiparticle states can play a role in producing an anti-Q slope while demonstrating how this model naturally includes a mechanism for turning the anti-Q slope on and off.
S. Deyo, M. Kelley et al. Phys. Rev. B 106, 104502 (2022)
TUIBA02
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
In recent years, superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities have been considered as candidates for qubits in quantum computing, showing longer photon lifetimes and, therefore, longer decoherence times of a cavity stored qubit compared to many other realizations. In modern particle accelerators, SRF cavities are the workhorse. Continuous research and development efforts are being undertaken to improve their properties, i.e., to increase the accelerating field and lower the surface resistance, which in turn increase the energy reach and duty cycle of accelerators. While some experimental milestones have been achieved, the mechanisms behind the still observed losses remain not fully understood. This talk will show that a recently reported temperature treatment of Nb SRF cavities in the temperature range of 573-673 K, which reduces the residual surface resistance to unprecedented values, is linked to a reorganization of the niobium oxide and near-surface vacancy structure and that this reorganization can explain the observed improved performance in both applications, quantum computing and SRF cavities.