# Presentation: 348405

## OverviewNew Materials for SRF Cavities

- Anne-Marie Valente-Feliciano
- Jefferson Lab/JSA

## Outline

**Which Superconductors for SRF Cavities?**
**Nb compounds**
**NbN**
**NbTiN**
**A15 Compounds:**
**Nb****3****Sn**
**V****3****Si**
**MgB****2**
**SIS Multilayer Structures**
**Concluding Remarks**

**Outline**

## Why looking beyond Nb?

- Nb cavities performance have reached close to its theoretical limit **(H ******** Hc = 200 mT)**
- For  further improved cavity RF performance, innovation needed
- Higher Tc , potentially higher Hc
- Substrates with higher thermal conductivity
- Potentially cryogenics cost reduction if cavity operation temperature at 4.2K or higher

**Why looking beyond Nb?**

**KEK&Cornell**

## Which superconductors are suitable for SRF applications? 

**                          ****and **
- If **T < Tc / 2**

- Which superconductors are suitable for SRF applications?

- Empirically, **R****res** found proportional to at least **√********n**

**For low RF losses, a high T****C**** value is not sufficient**

**A metallic behaviour (low normal resistivity) in the normal state is mandatory**

**Residual Resistance Rres**
**Inhomogeneties, Grain Boundaries, Surface Serration**

- RBCS

**Ideal**
**R ****BCS ****~**** 1 n****Ω**

- ~ 10 μΩcm

- V. Palmieri, 10th Workshop on RF Superconductivity Proceedings, Tsukuba 2001 (Noguchi)
-  “New materials for superconducting radiofrequency cavities”

## Choices among Superconducting Materials

| Material | Tc (K) | ρn(μΩcm) | Hc(0) [T] | Hc1(0) [T] | Hc2(0) [T] | (0) [nm] |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nb | 9.2 | 2 | 0.2 | 0.17 | 0.4 | 40 |
| NbN | 16.2 | 70 | 0.23 | 0.02 | 15 | 200 |
| NbTiN | 17.5 | 35 |  | 0.03 |  | 151 |
| Nb3Sn | 18 | 20 | 0.54 | 0.05 | 30 | 85 |
| V3Si | 17 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Mo3Re | 15 |  | 0.43 | 0.03 | 3.5 | 140 |
| MgB2 | 40 |  | 0.43 | 0.03 | 3.5 | 140 |

** ****Nb compounds**
** ****A15 compounds**
** ****MgB2**

## Nb Compounds

**B1 compounds – NaCl structure**

**Only few Nitrides and Carbides of the IV, V and VI group Transition Metals have critical temperatures higher than Niobium. **

## Nb Compounds - NbN

**The only B1 simple compound that has widely tested for accelerating cavities**
**Mainly two different techniques have been investigated:**
**Thermal diffusion of N into Nb followed by rapid quench**** cooling **
**Reactive Sputtering on metallic or ceramic substrates to Nb cavities**

**Thermal Diffusion:**
- Bulk Nb (RRR 300) annealed @ 1550 ̊C for 2h
- +
- reacted in N2 vapor(150mbar) @ 1400 ̊C for 4h
- Rs=1.3 10-6 @ 4.2K and 4 10-9 @1.8K @7.9GHz
- G.Gemme et al., J.Appl.Phys.** **77**(1)**,** **Jan. 1995

**Reactive Sputtering:**
- Sputtering from high purity Nb target in Ar + N2 in DC triode magnetron sputtering system
- Highest Tc for substrate temp. > 500 ̊C, PAr=8.10-3mbar, PN2=1.10-3mbar
- A. Nigro et al., Physica Scripta Vol. 38, 483-485, 1988

## Nb Compounds - NbN

**Good SC properties, even if deposited at low temperature**
**Low secondary emission coefficient**
**Very stable surface properties**

**Tc= 17.2 K** **for ****δ****-phase (lattice parameter = 4.388 Å) **
** *****T******C****** *****very sensitive to Nitrogen stoichiometry**
**. In sputtered films, the ****δ** **-phase can be found mixed to some other low *****T******C****** *****phases **
** ****Even if no grain boundaries are present and ****δ****-phase single crystal is considered the single grain resistivity is not so low.**

**Anomalously high resistivity of NbN in the normal state, often higher than 100 ****μ****Ω****cm**** due to both metallic and gaseous vacancies randomly distributed in both sublattices**
**Equiatomic composition is Nb****0.987****N****0.987**** not Nb****1.0****N****1.0**
**Common problem for B1 compounds**

## Nb Compounds - NbTiN

**INFN : reactive sputtering with Ar/N2 in DC Triode  Magnetron Sputtering @ 600 ̊C and 200 ̊C**
**(Nb~ xTix )N films with x ~< 0.5 present a lower calculated surface impedance than NbN, especially when deposited at low temperatures.**
- R. Di Leo et al. J. of Low Temp. Phys, vol 78, n1/2, pp41-50, 1990

**extreme hardness, excellent adherence on various substrates, very good corrosion and erosion resistance, high-sublimation temperature, and relative inertness**
-  **More metallic nature and  better surface properties than NbN should result in better rf performances**

## Nb Compounds - NbTiN

**Reactive Magnetron Sputtering:**
**CEA Saclay :**
** ****NbTiN films  deposited on 12 cm copper disks by magnetron sputtering and tested in a cylindrical TEOll cavity**
**reached RF field levels of 35 mT **
** ****low residual surface resistance (< 100 n****Ω**** ****at 4 GHz) with a very small BCS resistance**
**4 cavities deposited but no RF measurement due to film blistering on large area of the cavity.**
**Rs slope significantly decreased when coating with bias ranging from -50V to -100V**
- P. Bosland et al.
- S. Cantacuzène et al.

**CERN:**
**Samples and six 1.5 GHz Cu cavities coated by reactive cylindrical magnetron sputtering**
**Best cavity result for thicker film (4.3****μ****m) and lower deposition temperature ( 265 ̊C)**
**Rs = 330n****Ω**** @ 4.2K**
**Q****0**** at zero field is higher than the Q-value of Niobium cavities but Eacc limited under 10 MV/m**
**As for NbN, N stoichiometry critical to obtain the right SC phase**
- M. Marino, Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on RF Superconductivity, October 1997, Abano Terme (Padua), (Rep) 133/98, vol.IV, p.1076

## A15 Compounds

**Among the Nb and V based high Tc (15 – 20 K)**
**Nb****3****Ga and Nb****3****Ge do not exist as stable bulk materials at 3:1 stoichiometry**
**Nb****3****Al exists only at high temperature causing excessive  atomic disorder**
** **
**Production of above materials need non equilibrium processes**
**V****3****Ga, V****3****Si & Nb****3****Sn  are stable bulk material and have  high T****c**
**Yet another A-15 compound holding promise is Mo****3****Re (Tc=15K)**

_**Choice of A-15 Compounds for RF Cavities**_

_**Structure**_

**B atoms occupy corners and centre of BCC structure****A atoms form orthogonal chains bisecting the faces of the BCC  unit cell. **
**Linear Chain Integrity is crucial for Tc**

## A15 Compounds – Preparation Methods

**Extreme brittleness so A-15 bulk structure cannot be formed**
**The A-15 should be produced as thin layer on the interior of the already formed structure**
**Such a layer need to be only a micron or two thick****	****λ****L ****(Nb3Sn) = 65 nm**
**Thin film route ideal**

_**Co-Sputtering**_
**Considerable success achieved in synthesizing difficult materials like Nb****3****Ge with highest Tc(~23k) or V3Si **
**Typically two constituents are sputtered simultaneously onto a temperature controlled substrate**
**Stoichiometry dependent on relative positions of target and substrate (can be manipulated to get perfect stoichiometry)**
**Stoichiometry control difficult over large areas like accelerating system and if stoichiometry range for A-15 phase is narrow.**

_**Sputtering**_
** ****To sputter from a single target of correct stoichiometry (prepared by powder sintering)****	**
**Stoichiometry, Substrate Temperature, Deposition Rate, Deposition Thickness Can be varied independently **

_**Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)**_
**MOCVD (*****Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition) *****is a particular case of CVD in which the precursor is a metallorganic compound**
**Process in which one or more precursors, present in vapor phase, chemically react on an appropriate warm substrate, giving rise to a solid film**
**Deposition  rate and structure of the film depend upon temperature and reagent concentration**
**Uniformity of temperature and flow of gaseous over entire cavity surface may be difficult with complex geometry **

_**Diffusion Reaction**_
**Technique proved successful for magnet conductor application**
**Simple equipment compared to sputtering and CVD**

## A15 Compounds – Nb3Sn

**Wuppertal: Nb3Sn cavity (1.5 GHz) obtained trough Sn vapour phase diffusion @ 1200 ̊C (end ’80s)**

**5-cell 1.5GHz cavity also coated: Q****o****~10****9****, E****acc****=7MV/m with Q=8.10****8**
- G. Müller et al.,
- M. Peiniger & H. Piel , IEEETrans. On Nucl. Sc. Vol NS-32, no5, Oct. 1985

## A15 Compounds – Nb3Sn

- Nb**3**Sn coatings on Nb by liquid diffusion method at INFN Legnaro
**“****Hybrid” Process”**
- Substrate thermalization (30 min - 1 h)
- Dipping (few min - 2 h)
- Sample annealing with Sn vapor  for a few  hours
- Sample annealing without Sn vapor for a few hours

- Proc T = 975°C, Dipp t = 30’, Ann (Sn) t = 2h, Ann t = 5h

**Good Nb****3****Sn film superconductive properties**

**No Residual Sn traces on the sample surface**

**T****c**** = 16,5 K, ****D****T****c**** = 0,3 K**

**No Sn rich Phases**

**Diffusion temperature to be kept above 9300C to avoid formation of low Tc phases like Nb6Sn5 ( 2.6 K ) and NbSn2 ( 2.1 K )**
**Diffusion time  optimize to obtain desired Nb3Sn thickness**
**Post diffusion heat reaction important to get rid of the outer Sn layer**
**Post diffusion annealing to have enlarged grains and perfect ordering**

- S. Deambrosis, Sharma, LNL-INFN
- International SRF Thin Films Workshop, 2006

## Nb3Sn - MOCVD process & other

- Sample characterization by XRD, SEM and RBS analyses:  presence of niobium (I, II, V)  and tin (II) oxides on the surface.

_**Nb**__**3**__**Sn Coating through Multilayer Structure  (Keppel, LNL/INFN)**_
- Coat alternate layers of Nb and Sn and subject to diffusion reaction
- 	Preliminary results: a sharp transition and a Tc of  17 K has been obtained

**Problems:**
**great ****oxophylic character of Nb**
**Vacuum problem in the systems used**

- MOCVD technique using bis(cyclopentadienil)niobium borohydride, (cyclopentadienil)niobium tetramethyl and tributyltin hydride as Nb and Sn precursors respectively.

- G. Carta et al.

## A15 Compounds – Other Materials under Development

**Mo****3****Re thin films by DC magnetron deposition**
-       * Sapphire, Cu and Nb substrates used
-      * Substrate temperature up to 950**0** C
-      * A Tc = 12K obtained for composition Mo**60**Re**40**
**V****3****Si layers  by silanization of V substrate and Thermal Diffusion**
- V substrate heated to get SiH4 decomposition and Silicon diffusion
- Film grown by silanization with p (SiH4) ~ 10-3-10-4 mbar
- Annealing in vacuum to get rid of hydrogen
-      * Diffusion parameters and silane flow rate have been    optimized
-      * A Tc = 16 K is routinely obtained
-      * RF measurement on 6 GHz V-cavities will be available soon

## Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) 

**Magnesium Diboride (MgB****2****) **

- C. Buzea and T. Yamashita, Superconductor Sci. Technol. 14 (2001) R115.

** ****Compared to cuprates:**
** ****Cheaper**
** ****Lower anisotropy**
** ****Larger coherence length**
** ****Transparency of grain boundaries to current flows**
**	****attractive for RF applications.**

- Graphite-type boron layers separated by hexagonal close-packed layers of magnesium

## MgB2 – HPCVD on metal substrates

- High *T**c* has been obtained in polycrystalline MgB2 films on stainless steel, Nb, TiN, and other substrates.

**MgB2 – HPCVD on metal substrates**

- X. Xi- Penn State University

**Clean HPCVD MgB2  thin films with excellent properties:**** **
**RRR>80**
**low resistivity (<0.1 ****μΩ****) and long mean free path**
** ****high *****Tc***** ~ 42 K (due to tensile strain), high *****Jc *****(10% depairing current)**
** ****low surface resistance, short penetration depth**
** ****smooth surface (RMS roughness < 10 Å with N****2**** addition)**
** ****good thermal conductivity (free from dendritic magnetic instability)**

**Critical engineering considerations: **
** ****generate high Mg pressure at substrate (cold surface is Mg trap)**
**deliver diborane to the substrate (the first hot surface diborane sees should be the substrate)**

## MgB2 Coating: Reactive Deposition System 

**MgB****2**** Coating: Reactive Deposition System **

- B.H. Moeckly, ONR Superconducting Electronics Program Review
- Red Bank, NJ, February 8, 2005

- B.H. Moeckly et al., IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 15 (2005) 3308.
- T. Tajima et al, Proc.  PAC05.

*In-situ* reactive evaporation @ 550 ̊C

- SuperconductingTechnologies Inc.

- Oates, Agassi, and Moeckly, ASC 2006 Proceeding

**Compared to Nb: **
**Higher *****T******c***
**low resistivity**
**larger gap**
**higher critical field**

**RF measurement @ MIT/Lincoln Lab**

- T. Tajima, LANL

## MgB2 

- Film partially superconducting.

- Pulsed Laser Deposition - S.Mitsunobu et al. , KEK

- Low Pressure CVD - L. Crociani,INFN Legnaro
- International Workshop onThin Films and New Ideas for Pushing The Limits Of RF Superconductivity, LNL-INFN , Oct.2006

**MgB****2**** **

**Other production techniques**

**Challenges**
**Film properties degrade with exposure to air/moisture: resistance goes up, *****Tc***** goes down**** **
-  **Clean cavity surface leads to degradation in water and moisture**
** ****Safety ... procedures for use of diborane**

**Keys to high quality MgB2  thin films:**** **
** ****High Mg pressure for thermodynamic stability of MgB2**
** ****oxygen-free or reducing environment**
** ****clean Mg and B sources**

## SIS Multilayers

- Alex Gurevich, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 012511 (2006)

**Higher T****c**** thin layers provide magnetic screening of the bulk SC cavity (Nb, Pb) without vortex penetration**

**Taking advantage of the high –Tc superconductors without being penalized by their lower Hc1...**
**Multilayer coating of SC cavities:**
** ****alternating SC and insulating layers with ****d < ******** **

**“****A minimalistic solution”**
**A Nb cavity coated with an insulator and a single 50 nm thick Nb****3****Sn layerIf the Nb cavity can withstand H****i**** = 150mT,then the external field can be as high as  324mT**
**A single layer coating more than doubles the breakdown field with no vortex penetration, enabling Eacc******** 100 MV/m**
**   **

**Strong increase of H****c1**** in films allows using rf fields > H****c**** of Nb, but lower than those at which flux penetration in grain boundaries may become a problem**
**Strong reduction of BCS resistance because of using SC layers with higher ******** (Nb****3****Sn, NbN, etc) **

## SIS Multilayers: Experiments

**INFN Legnaro**
- 	**Nb3Sn/Al2O3/Nb (sputtering and thermal diffusion)**
**	****6GHz cavities coated. RF results soon**
**JLab**
**	****NbN/Al****2****O****3****/Nb  and NbTiN/Al****2****O****3****/Nb coated in UHV multi-techniques and ECR deposition systems under preparation (combining magnetron sputtering, IBAD, ECR, ...)**
**Argonne National Lab**
**	****Atomic Layer Deposition (****ALD): alternating, saturating reactions between gaseous precursor molecules and a substrate to deposit films layer by layer. Films from a wide variety of elements, compounds and alloys with a thickness from a few atomic monolayers to microns**
**Penn State University**
**	****MgB2 as a top layer with HPCVD**

## CONCLUDING REMARKS

**Over the years, some attempts have been made to study alternative materials to Nb for applications to SRF cavities **
**Most of the sample/cavities using alternative materials have been produced**
**by reactive magnetron sputtering or thermal diffusion. **
**Energetic Condensation Techniques like Vacuum Arc Deposition, ECR, or ALD?**
**Any material study would ideally combine material, surface analyses with superconducting properties and RF performance...an extensive but necessary mount of work.**
**The multilayer approach opens the door to further potential improvement for SRF cavities**
**The effort for new materials research for SRF cavities application has been very limited so far... **
**It took more than 30 years to optimize the cavity performance and**
** ****come close to the theoretical limit...and a few thousands of men-years...for niobium, **
**a pure metal...**

**CONCLUDING REMARKS**

## Aknowledgements

**C. Reece, JLab**
**V. Palmieri, S. Deambrosis, LNL-INFN**
**T. Tajima, LANL**
**X. Xi, PSU**
**J. Elam, ANL**
**A. Gurevich, FSU**

**Aknowledgements**

**Thank You !**

## State-of-the-art at 1500 MHz – 1.7 K – single cell

- Q  1x1010 @ 15 MV/m

- Q  3x109 @ 20 MV/m

- 28 MV/m reached in a large LEP cryostat (He evaporation at large power)

## LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL MAGNETRON SPUTTERING FOR THIN FILM SRF CAVITIES 

- Microstructure defects and voids
- Caused by lack of condensate mobility, shadowing
- Results in enhanced intergranular oxidation producing “weak links” and associated problems and electronic mean free path limitation
- Small grain size
- Provide an upper limit to the electronic mean free path in the absence of other limiting impurities.
- Sputter gas inclusion in the growing film along with other impurities such as oxygen and hydrogen.
- Film to substrate adhesion and film stress.

## RF PERFORMANCE OF SPUTTERED FILMS

- Q drop is the primary performance limitation in sputter-deposited niobium cavities.  It is more severe than in bulk niobium and the reasons have not been solidly identified. Some explanations have been suggested:
- Heavy oxide penetration of the surface at grain boundaries and low density voided structure creates “weak links” interrupting the surface transport current and enables the entry of Josephson fluxoids
- A dirty surface layer model proposed by Palmieri describe the field dependence of Q drop at all field regions.
- A depressed Hc1 at the surface arising from a small electronic mean free path enables fluxoid entry and large RF losses.
- What do we know about the microstructure and superconducting properties of sputtered films which might relate to RF performance?
- Sputtered films are known to have high values of Hc2 (low Hc1).
- Grain size is small, typically 20-30 nm, but ~200 nm to 1 micron in some films. Large grain sputtered films still have low RRR values indicating grain boundary scattering is not dominating the defect density.

## RF PERFORMANCE (cont.)

- Oxygen and other impurity content: Recent measurements by Hand and Frisken for the ratio of impurity content of a CERN film (RRR=11.5) to bulk niobium (RRR=282) to be 5.9 for oxygen and 0.3 for hydrogen.  These values are saturated with depth and the first 50 seconds of the SIMS trace shows a pronounced peak for oxygen not seen in the bulk niobium trace.
- Also Hc1 measurements for these films with a Squid Magnetometer may not be a sensitive indictor of the local surface Hc1.

## RF Performance

-  The best magnetron sputtered cavities to date are probably those from the CERN group.
-           - adhesion is no longer a problem
-           - grain size greater than 1 micron is achieved
-  bulk niobium performance is still not reached
-  What are the physical differences between these films and bulk material in the first 100 nm ?
-             - low RRR and high Hc2- What limits mfp ?
-             - Is there an influence from grain boundary     structure on film properties in the first 100 nm ?
-  What is the difference in oxygen content profile ?

## Slide 30

## METHODS OF ENERGETIC CONDENSATION

- Ion beam assisted deposition
- Independent metal vapor and ion source
- Electron beam ionization of metal vapor source
- High Power pulsed magnetron
- Unbalanced magnetron
- Biased magnetron
- Direct ion deposition
- Vacuum arc deposition
- ECR vacuum plasma
- Metallic Plasma Pulsed Ion Immersion Implantation Deposition (MPIIID)

## Niobium Ion Vacuum Plasma Films

-  Two important RF results by vacuum arc deposition:
- L. Catani, et al, SRF 2005 Proc., Cornell University
-         - uses film nonlinearity as a mixer to measure
-           changing surface impedance with field
-  Romanko and Russo, SRF 2005, Proc., Cornell
-     University
-           - TE011 cavity shows near constant surface
-              impedance up to 450 Oe.

## ECR Plasma

- Niobium is evaporated by e-beam, then the Nb vapours are ionized by an ECR process. The Nb ions can be accelerated to the substrate by an appropriate bias. Energies in excess of 100 eV can be obtained.

- Generation of plasma inside the cavity
- 3 essential components:
- Neutral Nb vapor
- RF power (@ 2.45GHz)
- Static B  ERF with ECR condition

- Why ECR?
- No working gas
- High vacuum means reduced impurities
- Controllable deposition energy,
- 90-degree deposition flux
- (Possible to help control the crystal structure)
- Excellent bonding
- No macro particles
*Faster rate (Conditional)*

## Evaporation + ECR: results on samples

- Obvious advantage: no noble gas for plasma creation
- Sample tests: good RRR and Tc, 100-nm grain size, lower defect density and smooth surfaces

**60eV**

**90eV**

**4000X4000 μm****2**

**3-D Profilometer Images**

**TEM Images**

## Plasma Arc (INFN)

**In the plasma arc an electric discharge is established directly onto the Nb target, producing a plasma plume from which ions are extracted and guided onto the substrate by a bias and/or magnetic guidance**
**Magnetic filtering (and/or arc pulsing) is also necessary to remove droplets **

- A trigger for the arc is necessary: either a third electrode, or a laser
- Arc spot moves on the Nb cathode
- 	at about 10 m/s
- Arc current is 100-200 A
- Cathode voltage is ~ 35 V
- Ion current is 100-500 mA on the sample-holder (2-10 mA/cm2)
- Base vacuum ~ 10-10 mbar
- Main gas during discharge is Hydrogen
- 	(~ 10-7 mbar)
- Voltage bias on samples 20-100 V

- From: R. Russo, A. Cianchi, S. Tazzari

## Plasma Arc – Need for filtering

- Arc source

- Nb droplets

- 5 μm

- 10 μm

- Magnetic filter

- Nb droplets

## Planar arc – cavity deposition set-up

- New ideas are put forward for using a planar arc for cavity coating

- 5 μm

- 10 μm

## Planar arc – RF measurements on samples!

- Cu samples with Nb ARC-coating. Used as a baseplate of 6 GHz cavity operating in the TE011 mode. At low field, the surface resistance is in the range 3÷6 μOhm, as compared to the BCS Rs of 0.22  μOhm at 2.2 K and small mean free path. The Q remained constant up to a field of 300 Oe.
- A baseline of 2.2 μOhm is measured with this cavity with a solid Nb plate
**	****	****	****A. Romanenko and H. Padamsee, Proc. SRF2005, Cornell, USA, 2005**

## Liner arc for cavity deposition (Soltan Institute)

## SUMMARY

-  Niobium thin film cavities require:
-          - m.f.p. >> coherence length
-          - surface roughness consistent with low magnetic  field enhancement
-          - a surface free from fissures, enhanced grain boundary oxidation, etc.
**Features of energetic condensation  systems:**
-           - the upper limit on ion energy is bounded by  the defect density created
-           - within the limits of cavity application, these films will be columnar
-            - good film structure can be obtained on amorphous substrates
-  	- a RRR of at least 100 or more is desirable  and a better understanding of defect sources is needed
-        - ion energy is limited by the reverse sputtering yield from the film to the point at which no net deposition occurs
-         - normal incidence is  likely to produce less roughness