Measurement of the high-field Q drop in a high-purity large-grain niobium cavity for different oxidation processes

Abstract

The most challenging issue for understanding the performance of superconducting radio-frequency (rf) cavities made of high-purity (residual resistivity ratio >200) niobium is due to a sharp degradation (“Q-drop”) of the cavity quality factor Q_{0}(B_{p}) as the peak surface magnetic field (B_{p}) exceeds about 90 mT, in the absence of field emission. In addition, a low-temperature (100–140°C) in situ baking of the cavity was found to be beneficial in reducing the Q-drop. In this contribution, we present the results from a series of rf tests at 1.7 and 2.0 K on a single-cell cavity made of high-purity large (with area of the order of few cm^{2}) grain niobium which underwent various oxidation processes, after initial buffered chemical polishing, such as anodization, baking in pure oxygen atmosphere, and baking in air up to 180°C, with the objective of clearly identifying the role of oxygen and the oxide layer on the Q-drop. During each rf test a temperature mapping system allows measuring the local temperature rise of the cavity outer surface due to rf losses, which gives information about the losses location, their field dependence, and space distribution. The results confirmed that the depth affected by baking is about 20–30 nm from the surface and showed that the Q-drop did not reappear in a previously baked cavity by further baking at 120°C in pure oxygen atmosphere or in air up to 180°C. These treatments increased the oxide thickness and oxygen concentration, measured on niobium samples which were processed with the cavity and were analyzed with transmission electron microscope and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the performance of the cavity after air baking at 180°C degraded significantly and the temperature maps showed high losses, uniformly distributed on the surface, which could be completely recovered only by a postpurification treatment at 1250°C. A statistic of the position of the “hot spots” on the cavity surface showed that grain boundaries are not the preferred location. An interesting correlation was found between the Q-drop onset, the quench field, and the low-field energy gap, which supports the hypothesis of thermomagnetic instability governing the Q-drop and the baking effect.