Pushing the Gradient Frontier in Superconducting RF

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Radio Frequency Superconductivity has become an enabling technology for a variety of accelerators necessary for frontier research in nuclear physics, materials science and high energy physics. In the US, many accelerator facilities are firmly based on superconducting rf (SRF) technology. As the gradient capability of SRF continues to improve, prospects for new applications grow increasingly attractive. This proposal seeks to continue generic R&D on improving superconducting cavity gradients. Gradients in niobium superconducting cavities have been steadily advancing over the last decade due to improvements in understanding the physics of cavity performance limitations and due to invention of appropriate cures to address these limitations. This proposal seeks to extend the record gradients to multi-cell structures of new shapes.The intellectual merit of this proposal will be to understand the causes of yield limitations in full-scale structures clearing the path to realizing 60 MV/m gradients. The broad impact of generic advances proposed here would be to benefit many of new facilities that will be based on SRF: Free Electron Lasers, Energy Recovery Linac based light sources, high intensity proton accelerators for neutrino beam lines or for accelerator transmutation of nuclear waste, rare isotope accelerators for nuclear astrophysics, the International Linear Collider, Muon accelerators for neutrino factories and ultimately a multi-TeV muon collider.