AVS2012 Session VT+AS+SS-WeM: Surface Analysis and Vacuum Manufacturing for Accelerators

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 8:00 AM in Room 14

Wednesday Morning

Time Period WeM Sessions | Abstract Timeline | Topic VT Sessions | Time Periods | Topics | AVS2012 Schedule

Start Invited? Item
8:00 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-1 Manufacturing and Welding Processes for TPS Large Aluminum Bending-Chambers and 14 m Vacuum Cells
Ching-Lung Chen, Chin-Chun Chang, Che-Kai Chan, Yi-Chen Yang, Tsung-Yu Lee, Gao-Yu Hsiung, June-Rong Chen (NSRRC, Taiwan, Republic of China)
A unique manufacturing and welding technique has been developed for building the 3 GeV Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) large aluminum bending chambers and 14-meter vacuum cells. There are total 48 bending chambers, which are about 3.8 meters long each. Combined with an appropriate manufacturing processes, such as with a precise CNC machine, lubrication with pure alcohol and cleaning with ozonated water, the aluminum chambers have an oil-free interior surface finished for an ultra-high vacuum environment before aluminum welding. Ozonated water has a high oxidation potential and can remove most organic contaminations. It is used to effectively clean aluminum chambers’ surfaces, and provides with the lowest outgassing yield.After the bending chambers are cleaned with ozonated water, the chambers are moved to a welding room for following welding processes. A novel automatic gas-tungsten arc-welding (GTAW) system has been established at NSRRC for welding the aluminum bending chambers. This welding system has a XY stage that is built and configured to provide high-performance positioning along multiple welding axes. The automatic welding system comprises six welding torches to implement simultaneously two longitudinal side welds of a bending chamber, and is innovative in using computer-based software to control the welding movements and the welding parameters of the six-torch output. In traditional manual welding, the key success factors focus on elimination as much as possible the distortions of structural assemblies. The six-torch welding and a clamp-free approach together address the issue of reducing distortion and minimizing residual stresses with a novel one-step welding process. In addition, on-site welding sequence is introduced for assembling two straight and two bending chambers into one 14-meter vacuum cell. From the beginning of CNC machining to the end of vacuum cell assembly, deformations through all process sequences are measured and controlled under 300 μm. In this paper, both the manufacturing sequences, vacuum data and statistical analysis of deformation control are presented in detail.
8:20 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-2 A High Power Electron Beam Stop for Cornell ERL Prototype Injector
Xianghong Liu, Yulin Li, Karl Smolenski, Ivan Bazarov, Bruce Dunham (Cornell University)
The electron beam stop for Cornell University’s Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) prototype injector was designed and manufactured for 600 kW electron beam power at beam energies between 5 and 15 MeV. To minimize neutron production from high energy electrons, aluminum was chosen over copper for the construction material. It consists of a 20 mm thick main body with machined outer cooling channels and a tight fit jacket, with the thickness mainly determined by the stopping power of the material. The stop body also serves as the vacuum envelope. The stop body is made of three sections, which are electron-beam welded together. It has a cylindrical shape with a cone at the end, about 0.5 m in diameter and 3 m in overall length. Flexibility is allowed at the body-jacket joint to minimize the thermal stress. The naturally small ERL electron beam is enlarged and rastered in a circular pattern using magnets at the entrance. The enlarged electron beam strikes the stop surface at an average angle of about 8 degrees. The electron scattering inside the stop body was simulated using GEANT4, and the inside profile of the body was optimized so that the thermal load is the most evenly distributed over the whole body. A quadrant detector is equipped at the entrance of the stop to monitor the electron beam centering and rastering. An array of thermocouples is installed on the outside surface of the jacket, providing a rough map of the heat load distribution. Gases generated in the close-circuit cooling water by radiolysis are vented and the concentration of hydrogen is monitored. The stop has been in operation since October 2008, and has been tested up to 250 kW to date.
8:40 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-3 Ion Pump Starting Behaviour at High Pressures - Influence of Pump Design Diode / Triode and Power Supply
Marcus Thierley, Chiara Paolini (Agilent Technologies, Italy)
Today ion pumps are broadly seen as pumps for good high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum environments. Operated at these low pressures, the power consumption of ion pumps is also very low, making ion pumps one of the most energy efficient vacuum pump technologies. Power supplies, however, with several hundred Watts of power continue to be used, as in the past decades, often based on the fear of not being able to start the ion pump; historic issues associated with higher pressures. In this presentation/paper, the differences in starting behaviour of Diode and Triode pump elements are discussed, based on experimental data. Questions addressed will include; how does the pumping speed of these elements change while starting with voltage and current? What impact does the power and design of the pump control unit have on the start and the pump down time of the vacuum system? What is the impact of the power supply unit’s technology (ie. classic transformer based design vs. more modern switching power supplies)? In addition to controller experimental data and discussion of the operation theory of the pump elements, pictures of the actual plasma development inside the pump will be featured.
9:00 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-4 Superconducting Niobium for Accelerator Cavities: Status and Prospects
Michael Kelley (Jefferson Lab and College of William & Mary)

Radiofrequency accelerator cavities of superconducting niobium are the technology of choice for a number of recent and coming particle accelerators, largely because of their cost-for-performance. The principal aspects of performance are the amount accelerator needed to achieve a required final beam energy (accelerating gradient, Eacc) and energy consumption (cavity quality factor, Qo). The former impacts chiefly initial cost; the latter both initial and operating costs. Research and development efforts are bearing fruit for both. Gaining the benefits need not await the construction of new accelerators or major upgrades, as accelerator modules are regularly cycled out of existing machines. A challenge that is under-appreciated by physics researchers, but is well familiar to the AVS community, is the manufacturing excellence needed to translate research progress into hardware on the ground.

Authored by Jefferson Science Associates LLC under US DOE Contract De-AC05-06OR23177
9:40 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-6 Niobium Nitride Thin Films and Multilayers for Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavities
William Roach, Douglas Beringer, Zhaozhu Li (The College of William and Mary); Jonathan Skuza (National Institute of Aerospace); César Clavero, Rosa Alejandra Lukaszew (The College of William and Mary)
Niobium nitride in thin film form has been considered for a number of applications including multilayered coatings onto superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities which have been proposed to overcome the fundamental accelerating gradient limit of 50 MV/m in niobium based accelerators [1]. In order to fulfill the latter application, the selected superconductor’s lower critical field, HC1, must be larger than that of niobium and separated from the niobium surface by an insulating layer in order to shield the niobium cavity from field penetration, therefore allowing higher field gradients. Thus, for the successful implementation of such a multilayered stack it is important to consider not just the material’s inherent properties, but also how these properties may be affected in thin film geometry and also by the specific deposition techniques used. Here, we present the results of our correlated study of structure and superconducting properties in niobium nitride thin films. Additionally, we explore how growth parameters can affect the surface morphology, since the quality of the surface has major implications on the ultimate performance of SRF cavities. Combining our findings on the surface morphology, microstructure, and superconducting properties in niobium nitride thin films, we discuss their potential application in multilayered coatings for accelerator cavities.
 
[1] A. Gurevich, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 012511 (2006).
 
This work was funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA-10-1-0072).
10:00 AM BREAK - Complimentary Coffee in Exhibit Hall
10:40 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-9 Characterization of Anisotropic Surface Morphology in Epitaxial Superconducting Thin Films by Wavelet Analysis
Douglas Beringer, Jeni Hackett, William Roach, Rosa Alejandra Lukaszew (The College of William and Mary)
Surface morphology and interface roughness are critical factors impacting the ultimate performance of many thin film materials and nano-scale devises. Next generation superconducting radio frequency (SRF) materials for particle accelerator cavities depend upon the ability to tailor and finely control the microstructure and morphology of superconducting / insulating /superconducting (SIS) multilayer thin film structures. The evolving surface of grown epitaxial thin films, influenced by nucleation and growth kinetics, may exhibit dendritic or fractal patterning where the resulting anisotropic features dominate a coarsening morphology. As such, a quantitative understanding of superconducting thin film morphology and the thin film deposition parameters leading to optimal SRF surfaces is desirable. Quantitative characterization of surface morphology is typically achieved with Fourier transform (FT) analysis and fractal characterization; however, this approach suffers intrinsic limitations as the FT is localized in the frequency domain and therefore cannot differentiate between specific features with isolated spatial coordinates. Wavelet analysis transcends these limitations by effectively isolating and quantifying surface features belonging to a designated length scale, thus enabling independent analysis of local surface features with varied spatial resolutions. Here we present our work with surface characterization by wavelet analysis of epitaxial superconducting Nb thin films.
11:00 AM VT+AS+SS-WeM-10 NbN-AlN-Nb Multilayer Thin Films for Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavities
Zhaozhu Li, William Roach, Douglas Beringer, César Clavero, Rosa Alejandra Lukaszew (College of William and Mary)

Linear accelerators that are used in high-energy or nuclear physics experiments use superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities made with bulk Nb. However, as technology is improved for bulk Nb cavities, the accelerating gradient for these cavities is reaching the fundamental limit of 50 MV/m. Since the critical surface of Nb in SRF cavities is less than one micron, it is possible to use thin films and multilayers to overcome the accelerating gradient limit. It has been proposed to apply a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) multi-layer structure onto Nb based cavities in order to provide an improved lower critical field (Hc1) that will shield the Nb and therefore allow for an increase in the accelerating gradient [1]. NbN is one of the superconductors that may be implemented in this SIS structure. However, the choice of insulator is crucial in determining the performance of NbN thin films. Here, we present our study of epitaxial thin films prepared on both MgO and AlN templates. The effect of substrate choice on microstructure and superconducting properties is explored in order to determine which insulator provides optimal performance of NbN thin films for SRF applications.

[1] A. Gurevich, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 012511 (2006).

Time Period WeM Sessions | Abstract Timeline | Topic VT Sessions | Time Periods | Topics | AVS2012 Schedule