Abstract
Conduction-cooling of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities using closed-cycle cryocoolers can lead to compact linear accelerators by eliminating liquid helium and the associated infrastructure. In this paper, we present the first-ever experimental demonstration of continuous wave (CW) accelerating gradients on a niobium SRF cavity that is cooled without using liquid helium. In a newly developed experimental apparatus, a single-cell, 650 MHz niobium cavity was conductively coupled to a 2 W @ 4.2 K pulse tube cryocooler using a high-purity aluminum thermal link. The CW accelerating gradient slightly exceeded 1.5 MV/m, a limit imposed by our RF power supply. Using simple scaling, we project that the niobium cavity when coated with Nb3Sn and operated on the same experimental setup can produce >10 MV/m CW accelerating gradients.
Highlights
Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are the workhorse of modern linear particle accelerators built for higher energy physics and basic energy sciences
While there is a continuous push for increasing the accelerating gradients of these cavities (>45 MV/m achieved so far [1]), a number of industrial applications can benefit from SRF accelerators producing low to medium cw gradients
The present work fills this gap by demonstrating cw accelerating gradients >1.5 MV/m on a conduction-cooled niobium SRF cavity and hopes to pave the way for a cryogen-free, compact electron-beam SRF accelerator for energy, environmental, and industrial application as envisioned in
Summary
Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are the workhorse of modern linear particle accelerators built for higher energy physics and basic energy sciences. The present reliance of SRF accelerators on liquid helium for sustaining superconductivity, may cause reluctance to their deployment to the industrial arena. This is because of (a) the decreasing ready-availability and rising cost of helium (b) complex and expensive infrastructure needed to work with liquid helium and (c) hazardous scenarios such as the loss of vacuum, frostbite, and asphyxiation, which are associated with any liquid helium installation. Conduction-cooling using closed-cycle 4 K cryocoolers is an attractive way of operating low-to-medium gradient SRF accelerators, which naturally eliminates liquid helium from them. The present work fills this gap by demonstrating cw accelerating gradients >1.5 MV/m on a conduction-cooled niobium SRF cavity and hopes to pave the way for a cryogen-free, compact electron-beam SRF accelerator for energy, environmental, and industrial application as envisioned in
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