Thin-film Cavity Research Articles

Thickness effect on superconducting properties of niobium films for radio-frequency cavity applications

Niobium-coated copper radio-frequency cavities are cost-effective alternatives to bulk niobium cavities, given the lower material costs of copper substrates and their operation in liquid helium at around 4.2 K. However, these cavities historically exhibited a gradual degradation in performance with the accelerating field. This phenomenon, not yet fully understood, limits the application of niobium thin film cavities in accelerators where the real-estate gradient needs to be maximized. Recent studies on niobium films deposited on copper using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technique show promising results in mitigating the performance degradation of niobium thin film radio-frequency cavities.This paper examines the effect of film thickness on the superconducting properties of niobium films deposited on copper using HiPIMS. The study provides insights into how the critical temperature, transition width, lower and upper critical fields, and critical current density vary with the film thickness. Increasing the thickness of niobium films deposited through HiPIMS is found to enhance superconducting properties and reduce densities of defects and structural irregularities in the crystalline lattice. This shows potential for enhancing overall performance and potentially mitigating the observed performance degradation in niobium thin film radio-frequency cavities. Additionally, the Ivry’s scaling relation among critical temperature, thickness, and sheet resistance at the normal state appears applicable to niobium films up to approximately 4 µm. This extends the previously confirmed validity for niobium films, which was limited to around 300 nm thickness.

A Novel Application of High Thermal Conductivity Material on Superconducting RF Cavities: The Inner-wall Thermal Conducting Film (ITCF)

Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) technology has developed rapidly for the requirements of high-energy accelerators in fundamental physics research and nuclear industry applications. Thus, the SRF community endeavored to improve the performance from every aspect for niobium and thin-film cavities and made significant breakthroughs in the past decades. However, the positive feedback effect from the RF loss seriously limits the cavity’s maximum acceleration gradient and causes the high field’s unstable operation. Mitigating this effect requires increasing the cavity thermal conductivity to reduce the temperature at the heating point. Conventional technology conducts the RF-loss heat from the surface to the liquid helium outside the cavity while the inner cavity remains vacuum. This paper introduces a new strategy which coats an inner-wall thermal-conducting film (ITCF) in the cavity for the first time globally. The COMSOL simulation results show that ITCF absorbs heat from the RF surface and transmits the heat to the distance on the inner wall, generating a different heat transfer route, thereby reducing the heating-point temperature more efficiently.

Temperature mapping on a niobium-coated copper superconducting radio-frequency cavity

Since the late ’80s, CERN has pioneered the development of niobium thin film radio-frequency (RF) cavities deposited on copper substrates for several particle accelerator applications. However, niobium thin film cavities historically feature a progressive performance degradation as the accelerating field increases. In this study, we describe a temperature mapping system based on contact thermometry, specially designed to obtain temperature maps of niobium-coated copper cavities and, consequently, study the mechanisms responsible for performance degradation. The first temperature maps on a niobium/copper 1.3 GHz cavity are reported along with its RF performance. In addition to some hotspots displayed in the temperature maps, we surprisingly observed a temperature decrease in a limited portion of the cavity cell as the accelerating field increased. This may shed new light on understanding the heat dissipation of niobium thin film cavities in liquid helium-I, which might be exploited to improve the RF cavity performance.

Temperature measurement on copper surfaces for superconducting thin film cavity applications

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) thin film cavities on copper substrates are employed in several particle accelerators. However, these SRF cavities historically featured a progressive performance degradation with the accelerating field that is still not completely understood. The degradation of cavity performance, which limits the use of this technology in accelerators where the real-estate gradient has to be maximized, is manifested by the presence of heat losses in the superconducting film. However, measuring the temperature on the outer surface of copper substrates is challenging due to the higher thermal conductivity of copper at low temperatures compared to niobium. This study describes how temperature variations on copper surfaces can be satisfactorily measured in view of superconducting thin film cavity applications at liquid helium temperatures. Furthermore, we explore how the thermal exchange between thermometers and copper surfaces, and thermometers and helium bath must be tuned with respect to each other in order to measure accurately temperature rises in the thin film. Our findings suggest that engineering the copper surfaces can improve heat transfer into the helium bath and potentially enhance the performance of thin film SRF cavities.

Photo-elasticity of silk fibroin harnessing whispering gallery modes

Silk fibroin is an important biomaterial for photonic devices in wearable systems. The functionality of such devices is inherently influenced by the stimulation from elastic deformations, which are mutually coupled through photo-elasticity. Here, we investigate the photo-elasticity of silk fibroin employing optical whispering gallery mode resonation of light at the wavelength of 1550 nm. The fabricated amorphous (Silk I) and thermally-annealed semi-crystalline structure (Silk II) silk fibroin thin film cavities display typical Q-factors of about 1.6 × 104. Photo-elastic experiments are performed tracing the TE and TM shifts of the whispering gallery mode resonances upon application of an axial strain. The strain optical coefficient K’ for Silk I fibroin is found to be 0.059 ± 0.004, with the corresponding value for Silk II being 0.129 ± 0.004. Remarkably, the elastic Young’s modulus, measured by Brillouin light spectroscopy, is only about 4% higher in the Silk II phase. However, differences between the two structures are pronounced regarding the photo-elastic properties due to the onset of β-sheets that dominates the Silk II structure.

High-quality GeSn thin-film resonant cavities for short-wave infrared applications

High-quality infrared (IR) devices made of group IV materials are highly promising to replace traditional III–V semiconductor-based IR optoelectronics due primarily to their compatibility with mature silicon-based technologies and much lower costs. In this regard, germanium tin (GeSn) has emerged as the only direct bandgap material in the group IV family exhibiting superior electrical and optical characteristics. In the past years, GeSn IR optoelectronics including lasers and photodetectors have been realized, although novel device architectures are still needed to enhance their device performance. Here, we experimentally demonstrate high-performance, large-area (mm2) GeSn thin-film resonant cavities (film thickness resonance operating at short-wave IR wavelengths by employing membrane transfer techniques). The fabricated asymmetric air/GeSn/metal structures exhibit high absorptance (>90%) at designed resonance wavelengths, which are easily tuned by tailoring the GeSn layer thickness. The measured resonance absorption reveals excellent agreement with numerical simulations, which further elucidates the mode characteristics of the observed cavity resonances. The demonstrated thin-film device architectures could greatly facilitate the development of novel GeSn photonic devices with tunable wavelengths and enhanced performance enabled by strain engineering, and could allow for the integration of GeSn into many existing group IV-based devices for next-generation IR optoelectronics where high performance, small footprint, and low cost are all required.

Inverse design in nuclear quantum optics: From artificial x-ray multilevel schemes to spectral observables

Ensembles of M\"ossbauer nuclei embedded in thin-film cavities form a promising platform for x-ray quantum optics. A key feature is that the joint nuclei-cavity system can be considered as an artificial x-ray multi-level scheme in the low-excitation regime. Using the cavity environment, the structure and parameters of such level schemes can be tailored beyond those offered by the bare nuclei. However, so far, the direct determination of a cavity structure providing a desired quantum optical functionality has remained an open challenge. Here, we address this challenge using an inverse design methodology. As a first qualitative result, we show that the established fitting approach based on scattering observables in general is not unique, since the analysis may lead to different multi-level systems for the same cavity if based on observables in different scattering channels. Motivated by this, we distinguish between scattering signatures and the microscopic level scheme as separate design objectives, with the latter being uniquely determined by an \textit{ab initio} approach. We find that both design objectives are of practical relevance and that they complement each other regarding potential applications. We demonstrate the inverse design for both objectives using example tasks, such as realising electromagnetically induced transparency. Our results pave the way for new applications in nuclear quantum optics involving more complex x-ray cavity designs.

Development and Performance of the First Nb3Sn Thin-Film Cavity via Bronze Process

Low-temperature synthesis of Nb3Sn thin-film cavity is of great significance in the field of superconducting radio frequency (SRF). The bronze process can grow only stable Nb3Sn phase at 700 °C, so it is considered to be the most promising process for low-temperature synthesis of Nb3Sn thin-film cavity. We successfully fabricated the worldwide first Nb3Sn thin-film cavity by bronze process. We technically solved the key problems of precursor preparation, characterized and analyzed the uniformity of the Nb3Sn film, and tested the performance of the cut-out samples and the whole cavity of the Nb3Sn film. It is obtained that the Q 0 value of the cavity at 4.2 K is about 1.2 × 109, which is greater than the performance of the bulk-niobium cavity under the same conditions. This result means that the preparation of Nb3Sn by bronze process has the great potential to more practical copper-based Nb3Sn thin-film cavity, which is expected to achieve a substantial improvement in the performance of SRF cavity and comprehensive engineering applications.

Cavity-enhanced magnetic dipole resonance induced hot luminescence from hundred-nanometer-sized silicon spheres

Abstract In this paper, we demonstrate the first example of phonon-assisted hot luminescence (PAHL) emission from silicon (Si) spheres (diameter > 100nm) without using the plasmonic effect or quantum confinement effect. Instead, we excite the hot luminescence of Si by a strong thin-film-cavity-enhanced magnetic dipole resonance. The thin-film cavity (80 nm SiO2/Ag) shows a strong co-enhancement with the magnetic dipole resonance of Si sphere (diameter = 120 nm). The concentrated electromagnetic fields induce significant light–matter interaction. Our Si sphere coupled with a thin-film cavity achieves a 10-fold field enhancement relative to the Si sphere without an enhancement substrate. Furthermore, we experimentally use cavity-enhanced magnetic dipole resonance to a 50-fold enhancement in PAHL. The measured internal quantum efficiency for the visible light emitted from the Si spheres was approximately 2.4%. Furthermore, we demonstrate the tunability of emission peaks merely by adjusting the sizes of Si spheres using thermal oxidation and etching processes. For comparison, we calculated the peak wavelength (λ peak) sensitivities (Δλ peak/ΔDiameter) of Si spheres and Si QDs through Mie theory and effective mass approximation, respectively. The predicated peak sensitivities of the Si spheres ranged from 1.3 to 3.2; they were much more controllable than those of the Si QDs (200–400). Thus, the peak wavelengths of the PAHL of the Si spheres could be modulated and controlled much more precisely and readily than that of the Si QDs. With the tunability and strong electromagnetic field confinement, the cavity-enhanced magnetic dipole resonance appears to have great potential in the development of all-optical processing based on Si photonics.

Probing the dissipation process via a Fano resonance and collective effects in an x-ray cavity

In the absence of time-reversal symmetry, the asymmetric parameter $q$ of the Fano resonance is extended into the complex space, where its trajectory can be utilized to investigate the decoherence process. By embedding the ensemble of M$\stackrel{\ifmmode \ddot{}\else \"{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{o}}$ssbauer nuclei in the thin-film planar cavity in this work, the trajectories of asymmetric parameter $q$ are studied via the collective effect of the nuclear ensemble, which is regulated by the nuclear abundance and angle offset. Due to the diverse controllable methods of the collective resonant strength, there are different straight lines and arc-shaped trajectories in the complex plane, in which the slopes and the radius can be adjusted by the angle offset and nuclear abundance, respectively. It is demonstrated that the dissipation process can be ``suppressed'' equivalently by the strong energy exchange between the cavity and the nuclear ensemble. The present results could enrich the behaviors of the asymmetric parameter $q$ in the complex plane and would provide a new opportunity for decoherence research through the thin-film planar cavity.

The Intrinsic Photoluminescence Spectrum of Perovskite Films

AbstractPhotoluminescence spectroscopy is a simple and powerful characterization technique to determine material properties and dynamic effects in metal–halide perovskite optoelectronic systems. However, self‐absorption and thin film cavity effects, amplified due to their high refractive indices, can have a significant impact on spectral lineshapes, affecting the inferences drawn from such characterization. In this work, key variables extrinsic to the perovskite material influencing the photoluminescence spectrum of perovskite thin films are identified and an optical model to account for these factors is proposed. The model is used to extract the intrinsic spectrum of a film using complex refractive indices and film thickness as input variables. Lastly, the use of the model is extended to multilayer systems to demonstrate its applicability to complex device‐relevant stacks.

Parallel Laser Printing of a Thermal Emission Pattern in a Phase‐Change Thin Film Cavity for Infrared Camouflage and Security (Laser Photonics Rev. 16(3)/2022)

Thermal Emission In article number 2100545, Yeongseon Kim, Chanhee Kim, and Myeongkyu Lee employ layer-by-layer laser printing to selectively and dynamically control the thermal emissivity of a phase-change GST emitter. This method can produce gradient emission patterns as well as stepwise patterns, enabling long-IR emissivity at a specific position to be tuned from 0.26 to 0.8. The presented approach is promising for IR-adaptive camouflage and security.

Inverse design approach to x-ray quantum optics with Mössbauer nuclei in thin-film cavities

Thin-film cavities containing layers of M\"ossbauer nuclei have been demonstrated to be a rich platform for x-ray quantum optics. At low excitation, these systems can be described by effective few-level schemes, thereby providing tunable artificial quantum systems at hard x-ray energies. With the recent advent of an ab initio theory, a numerically efficient description of these systems is now possible. On this basis, we introduce the inverse design and develop a comprehensive optimization for an archetypal system with a single resonant layer, corresponding to an artificial two-level scheme. We discover a number of qualitative insights into x-ray photonic environments for nuclei that will likely impact the design of future x-ray cavities and thereby improve their performance. The methods presented readily generalize beyond the two-level case and thus provide a clear perspective towards the inverse design of more advanced tunable x-ray quantum optical level schemes.

Top-emitting 940-nm thin-film VCSELs transferred onto aluminum heatsinks

Thin-film vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) mounted onto heatsinks open up the way toward low-power consumption and high-power operation, enabling them to be widely used for energy saving high-speed optical data communication and three-dimensional sensor applications. There are two conventional VCSEL polarity structures: p-on-n and n-on-p polarity. The former is more preferably used owing to the reduced series resistance of n-type bottom distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) as well as the lower defect densities of n-type GaAs substrates. In this study, the p-on-n structures of thin-film VCSELs, including an etch stop layer and a highly n-doped GaAs ohmic layer, were epitaxially grown in upright order by using low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). The p-on-n structures of thin-film VCSELs were transferred onto an aluminum heatsink via a double-transfer technique, allowing the top-emitting thin-film VCSELs to keep the p-on-n polarity with the removal of the GaAs substrate. The threshold current (Ith) and voltage (Vth) of the fabricated top-emitting thin-film VCSELs were 1 mA and 2.8 V, respectively. The optical power was 7.7 mW at a rollover point of 16.1 mA.

Parallel Laser Printing of a Thermal Emission Pattern in a Phase‐Change Thin Film Cavity for Infrared Camouflage and Security

AbstractEngineering the thermal emission of a material in the long‐wavelength infrared (IR) range is applicable to a wide variety of fields, including IR‐adaptive camouflage, information encryption, radiative cooling, energy‐saving windows, and personal thermal management. Although many different materials or structures have been proposed for these purposes, the position‐selective dynamic control of their thermal emission remains a significant challenge. Herein, a laser printing method is presented to spatially tune the thermal emission of a Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) planar cavity formed on a metal back reflector. Crystallization‐induced emission patterns are directly recorded into an amorphous GST film (400 nm thick) in a layer‐by‐layer fashion, where the crystallization of each layer is patterned using a spatially modulated pulsed laser beam. The proposed parallel laser printing method can produce gradient emission patterns as well as stepwise patterns, enabling the emissivity at a specific position to be tuned from 0.26 to 0.8. This provides a promising platform for IR‐adaptive camouflage, which is demonstrated with emissivity‐modulated GST emitters. This study also shows that laser‐printed emission patterns can be effectively utilized for security applications such as anti‐forgery.

Metallic nanoparticle-on-mirror: Multiple-band light harvesting and efficient photocurrent generation under visible light irradiation

We present a photoanode concept for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting based on metal nanoparticles (Au, Ag, Cu) deposited on a Ti mirror (NPoM) to photosensitize an intermediate TiO2 layer to induce the harvesting of light with sub-bandgap photon energies. The generation of hot electron-hole pairs in metallic nanostructures can occur either by intraband excitation, i.e., plasmon electrons, or by the interband transition of the d-band electrons to the unoccupied conduction band states. Our results demonstrate that the underlying Ti mirror significantly amplifies the PEC activity of such NPoM systems in the visible spectral range. We show that the PEC enhancement in the visible spectral range is not limited to the intraband excitations but is affected mainly by the light trapping pathway within the TiO2 layer, i.e. due to a favorable interplay between thin-film interference cavity modes with both intraband and interband excitations. Among tested metals, Cu and Ag NPs demonstrate a ~3-fold higher enhancement factor than that of Au NPs, while in both former cases the nature of the excited electrons is different. The experimentally determined internal quantum efficiency demonstrates alternating behavior with wavelength showing higher efficiencies at short wavelengths, which is attributed to the reduced Schottky barrier of the NPoMs at constructive interference maxima.

Low-Temperature Baking Effect of the Radio-Frequency Nb3Sn Thin Film Superconducting CavitySupported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2020410), the Major Research Plan of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91426303), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB25000000), and the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents

The Nb3Sn thin film cavity, having the potential to be operated at a higher temperature and higher gradient compared to the cavity made from bulk niobium, is one of the most promising key technologies for the next-generation radio-frequency superconducting accelerators. In our work, several 1.3 GHz single-cell TESLA-shaped Nb3Sn thin film cavities, coated by the vapor diffusion method, were tested at Peking University and Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was observed that the performance of the Nb3Sn thin film cavities in the tests without the slow cooling down procedure and the effective magnetic field shielding was significantly improved by using a low temperature baking at 100 °C for 48 hours. Although the peak electric field of the cavity remained unchanged, the rapid drop of the unloaded Q value (Q 0) with the increasing accelerating field (Q-slope) was effectively eliminated, resulting in an improvement of the Q 0 in the intermediate field region by ∼ 8 times. Furthermore, under better test conditions with the shielded magnetic field less than 5 mG and the slow cooling down procedure in the temperature range of 25–15 K, the Q 0 was still improved by about 20%. Our study shows that the low temperature baking can be an effective supplement to the effective post-treatment for the Nb3Sn thin film cavity.

Controlling core-hole lifetime through an x-ray planar cavity

It has long been believed that core-hole lifetime (CHL) of an atom is an intrinsic physical property, and controlling it is significant yet is very hard. Here, CHL of the 2p state of W atom is manipulated experimentally through adjusting the emission rate of a resonant fluorescence channel with the assistance of an x-ray thin-film planar cavity. The emission rate is accelerated by a factor linearly proportional to the cavity field amplitude, that can be directly controlled by choosing different cavity modes or changing the angle offset in experiment. This experimental observation is in good agreement with theoretical predictions. It is found that the manipulated resonant fluorescence channel even can dominate the CHL. The controllable CHL realized here will facilitate the nonlinear investigations and modern x-ray scattering techniques in hard x-ray region.

Electrically Tunable Singular Phase and Goos-Hänchen Shifts in Phase-Change-Material-Based Thin-Film Coatings as Optical Absorbers.

The change of the phase of light under the evolution of a nanomaterial with time is a promising new research direction. A phenomenon directly related to the sudden phase change of light is the Goos-Hänchen(G-H) shift, which describes the lateral beam displacement of the reflected light from the interface of two media when the angles of incidence are close to the total internal reflection angle or Brewster angle. Here, an innovative design of lithography-free nanophotonic cavities to realize electrically tunable G-H shifts at the singular phase of light in the visible wavelengths is reported. Reversible electrical tuning of phase and G-H shifts is experimentally demonstrated using a microheater integrated optical cavity consisting of a dielectric film on an absorbing substrate through a Joule heating mechanism. In particular, an enhanced G-H shift of 110 times of the operating wavelength at the Brewster angle of the thin-film cavity is reported. More importantly, electrically tunable G-H shifts are demonstrated by exploiting the significant tunable phase change that occurs at the Brewster angles, due to the small temperature-induced refractive index changes of the dielectric film. Realizing efficient electrically tunable G-H shifts with miniaturized heaters will extend the research scope of the G-H shift phenomenon and its applications.

Fluxon-Induced Losses in Niobium Thin-Film Cavities Revisited

Long standing data from niobium thin film accelerating cavities will be revisited and analysed by a modified London model of RF superconductivity. Firstly, the applicability of this model is explored using data of the BCS surface resistance and its dependence on the RF magnetic field, temperature and mean free path. Secondly, the RF losses from trapped magnetic flux are analysed with regard to their dependence on these same parameters.