Hall, D.L. Cueva, P. Liarte, D. Liepe, M. Muller, D.A. Porter, R.D. Sethna, J.P. JACoW Geneva, Switzerland 978-3-95450-191-5 10.18429/JACoW-SRF2017-THPB041 English 840-843 THPB041 ion cavity detector niobium electron Contribution to a conference proceedings 2018 2018-01 https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-SRF2017-THPB041 http://jacow.org/srf2017/papers/thpb041.pdf Previous experimental studies on single-cell Nb3Sn cavities have shown that the cause of quench is isolated to a localised defect on the cavity surface. Here, cavity temperature mapping has been used to investigate cavity quench behaviour in an Nb3Sn cavity by measuring the temperature at the quench location as the RF field approaches the quench field. The heating profile observed at the quench location prior to quench appears to suggest quantised vortex entry at a defect. To investigate further, the quench region has been removed from the cavity and analysed using SEM methods. These results are compared to theoretical models describing two vortex entry defect candidates: regions of thin-layer tin-depleted Nb3Sn on the cavity surface that lower the flux entry field, and grain boundaries acting as Josephson junctions with a lower critical current than the surrounding material. A theoretical model of layer growth developed using density functional theory is used to discuss alterations to the coating process that could mitigate the formation of such defects.