Public Abstract

DE-SC0021038: Next Steps in the Development of Turn-Key SRF Technology

Award Status: Active

Institution: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
UEI: G56PUALJ3KT5
DUNS: 872612445

Most Recent Award Date: 08/27/2024
Number of Support Periods: 4
PM: Marken, Kenneth

Current Budget Period: 09/26/2024 - 08/31/2025
Current Project Period: 09/26/2024 - 08/31/2027
PI: Liepe, Matthias

Supplement Budget Period: N/A

Public Abstract

Next Steps in the Development of Turn-Key SRF Technology Matthias Liepe, Cornell University (Principal Investigator) Rapid progress during the last years in the performance of Superconducting Radio-Frequency (SRF) cavities coated with the superconductor Nb3Sn has made this material an energy efficient alternative to traditional Niobium, thereby initiating a fundamental shift in SRF technology. Funded by the US DOE GARD program, Cornell University has produced the first-ever Nb3Sn SRF cavities to reach usable gradients above 15 MV/m with high intrinsic quality factors Q above 1E10 at 4.2K. These Nb3Sn cavities not only can be operated using less cooling power than needed for a niobium cavity but can simultaneously be operated at significant higher temperature (e.g., 4K instead of 2K), enabling new, robust, and turn-key cryogenic cooling schemes based on conduction cooling with commercial cryocoolers. The U.S. DOE report “Accelerators for America’s Future” points out that “The next-generation accelerators of tomorrow have the potential to make still greater contributions to the nation’s health, wealth and national security,” and concludes that an “important goal in accelerator R&D that cuts across all disciplines is the development of smaller, more compact but often high-power, more rugged (“fieldable”), highly reliable (reflecting industrial standards), and less costly (in construction and operation) accelerator structures.” This research program will develop and test such a high-power, compact, turn-key accelerator based on a 4K conduction-cooled Nb3Sn SRF cavity. Key technologies for this compact accelerator include the conduction-cooled SRF cryomodule, a high-power RF system, and a high-current thermionic electron source. The R&D program will culminate in the commissioning of this compact accelerator and high current beam operation for detailed performance studies. This work will result in a proof-of-principle demonstration of a compact (~5m length) turn-key accelerator based on 4K conduction-cooled Nb3Sn cavities, capable of CW operation with high-current (tens of mA) beams. These advances will enable moving SRF acceleration from an expert technology to a robust technology suitable for a much wider range of particle accelerator applications. Examples abound for industry (e.g., for in-line metrology/wafer inspection; radiation crosslinking, ion implantation), for medical applications (e.g., for radionuclide production; sterilization of medical equipment), for environmental conservation (e.g., radiation processing of polluted water and flue gas emissions), for national security (e.g., for cargo x-ray imaging), for universities (e.g., for compact x-ray sources), and for quantum computing (e.g., for electron irradiation of diamond to generate nitrogen-vacancy centers).

Next Steps in the Development of Turn-Key SRF Technology

Matthias Liepe, Cornell University (Principal Investigator)

Rapid progress during the last years in the performance of Superconducting Radio-Frequency (SRF) cavities coated with the superconductor Nb3Sn has made this material an energy efficient alternative to traditional Niobium, thereby initiating a fundamental shift in SRF technology. Funded by the US DOE GARD program, Cornell University has produced the first-ever Nb3Sn SRF cavities to reach usable gradients above 15 MV/m with high intrinsic quality factors Q above 1E10 at 4.2K. These Nb3Sn cavities not only can be operated using less cooling power than needed for a niobium cavity but can simultaneously be operated at significant higher temperature (e.g., 4K instead of 2K), enabling new, robust, and turn-key cryogenic cooling schemes based on conduction cooling with commercial cryocoolers.

The U.S. DOE report “Accelerators for America’s Future” points out that “The next-generation accelerators of tomorrow have the potential to make still greater contributions to the nation’s health, wealth and national security,” and concludes that an “important goal in accelerator R&D that cuts across all disciplines is the development of smaller, more compact but often high-power, more rugged (“fieldable”), highly reliable (reflecting industrial standards), and less costly (in construction and operation) accelerator structures.”

This research program will develop and test such a high-power, compact, turn-key accelerator based on a 4K conduction-cooled Nb3Sn SRF cavity. Key technologies for this compact accelerator include the conduction-cooled SRF cryomodule, a high-power RF system, and a high-current thermionic electron source. The R&D program will culminate in the commissioning of this compact accelerator and high current beam operation for detailed performance studies.

This work will result in a proof-of-principle demonstration of a compact (~5m length) turn-key accelerator based on 4K conduction-cooled Nb3Sn cavities, capable of CW operation with high-current (tens of mA) beams. These advances will enable moving SRF acceleration from an expert technology to a robust technology suitable for a much wider range of particle accelerator applications. Examples abound for industry (e.g., for in-line metrology/wafer inspection; radiation crosslinking, ion implantation), for medical applications (e.g., for radionuclide production; sterilization of medical equipment), for environmental conservation (e.g., radiation processing of polluted water and flue gas emissions), for national security (e.g., for cargo x-ray imaging), for universities (e.g., for compact x-ray sources), and for quantum computing (e.g., for electron irradiation of diamond to generate nitrogen-vacancy centers).