CERN, Geneva
Electron-cloud is one of the main limitations for particle accelerators with positively charged beams of high intensity and short bunch spacing, as SPS at CERN. The Secondary Electron Yield (SEY) of the inner surface of the vacuum chamber is the main parameter governing the phenomenon. The effect could be eliminated by coating the magnets vacuum chambers with a material of low SEY, which does not require bake-out and is robust against air exposure. For such a purpose amorphous carbon coatings were produced by magnetron sputtering of graphite targets. They exhibit maximum SEY between 0.9 and 1.1 after air transfer to the measuring instrument. After 1 month air exposure the SEY rises to values between 1.1 and 1.4. Storage under nitrogen or by packaging in Al foil makes this increase negligible. The coatings have a similar XPS C1s spectrum for a large set of deposition parameters and exhibit an enlarged line-width compared to pure graphite. The static outgassing without bake-out depends on deposition parameters and is in a range from 1 to 10 times higher than that of stainless steel. Instead, electron stimulated outgassing is lower than for stainless steel and is dominated by CO.
CERN, Geneva
Cockcroft Institute, Lancaster University, Lancaster
Niobium thin film cavities have shown good and reliable performance for LEP and LHC, although there are limitations to overcome if this technique should be used for new accelerators such as the ILC. New coating techniques like High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) has shown very promising results and we will report on its possible improvements for Nb thin film cavity performance. Current materials used in accelerator SRF technologies operate at temperatures below 4 K, which require complex cryogenic systems. Researchers have investigated the use of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) to form RF cavities, with limited success*. We propose a new approach to achieve a high-temperature SRF cavity based on the superconducting 'proximity effect'**. The superconducting proximity effect is the effect through which a superconducting material in close proximity to a non-superconducting material induces a superconducting condensate in the latter. Using this effect we hope to overcome the problems that have prevented the use of HTS for accelerating structures so far. We will report the preliminary studies of magnetron sputtered thin films of Cu on Nb.
* E. J. Minehara et al, Superconductivity 3, p277 (1990)
** R. Seviour et al, Superlattices and Microstructures, 25, p647 (1999)