Field dependent surface resistance of niobium on copper cavities

Abstract

The surface resistance R_{S} of superconducting cavities prepared by sputter coating a niobium film on a copper substrate increases significantly stronger with the applied rf field compared to cavities of bulk material. A possible cause is that the thermal boundary resistance between the copper substrate and the niobium film induces heating of the inner cavity wall, resulting in a higher R_{S}. Introducing helium gas in the cavity, and measuring its pressure as a function of applied field allowed to conclude that the inner surface of the cavity is heated up by less than 120 mK when R_{S} increases with E_{acc} by 100 nΩ. This is more than one order of magnitude less than what one would expect from global heating. Additionally, the effects of cooldown speed and low temperature baking have been investigated in the framework of these experiments. It is shown that for the current state of the art niobium on copper cavities there is only a detrimental effect of low temperature baking. A fast cooldown results in a lowered R_{S}.